# Tesseract User Manual This user manual is for Tesseract versions `5.x`. For versions `4.x.x`, `3.05.02` and older, see the [documentation for old versions](OldVersionDocs.md). - [Tesseract User Manual](#tesseract-user-manual) * [Introduction](#introduction) * [Releases and Changelog](#releases-and-changelog) * [Tesseract with LSTM](#tesseract-with-lstm) * [5.x.x](#5xx) + [Source Code](#source-code) + [Binaries](#binaries) + [Traineddata Files](#traineddata-files) + [Compiling and Installation](#compiling-and-installation) + [Usage](#usage) + [API Examples](#api-examples) + [Technical Information](#technical-information) + [Training for Tesseract 5](#training-for-tesseract-5) + [Testing](#testing) + [External Projects](#external-projects) * [User Manual for Old Versions](#user-manual-for-old-versions) ## Introduction Tesseract is an open source [text recognition (OCR)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_character_recognition) Engine, available under the [Apache 2.0 license](http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0). * Major version 5 is the current stable version and started with release [5.0.0](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract/releases/tag/5.0.0) on November 30, 2021. * Newer minor versions and bugfix versions are available from [GitHub](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract/releases/). * Latest source code is available from [main branch on GitHub](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract/tree/main). Open issues can be found in [issue tracker](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract/issues), and [planning documentation](https://tesseract-ocr.github.io/tessdoc/Planning.html). Tesseract can be used directly via [command line](Command-Line-Usage.md), or (for programmers) by using an [API](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract/blob/main/include/tesseract/baseapi.h) to extract printed text from images. It supports a [wide variety of languages](Data-Files-in-different-versions.md). Tesseract doesn't have a built-in GUI, but there are several available from the [3rdParty](User-Projects-–-3rdParty.md) page. External tools, wrappers and training projects for Tesseract are listed under [AddOns](AddOns.md). Tesseract can be used in your own project, under the terms of the [Apache License 2.0.](http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0) It has a fully featured API, and can be compiled for a variety of targets including Android and the iPhone. See the [3rdParty](User-Projects-–-3rdParty.md) and [AddOns](AddOns.md) pages for samples of what has been done with it. If you have a question, first read the [documentation](https://tesseract-ocr.github.io/), particularly the **[FAQ](FAQ.md)** to see if your problem is addressed there. If not, search the [Issues List](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract/issues), [Tesseract user forum](http://groups.google.com/group/tesseract-ocr), and if you still can't find what you need, please ask your question in [Tesseract user forum Google group](http://groups.google.com/group/tesseract-ocr). Tesseract is free software, so if you want to pitch in and help, please do! If you find a bug and fix it yourself, the best thing to do is to attach the patch to your bug report in the [Issues List](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract/issues). ## Releases and Changelog - [Release Planning](Planning.md) - [API/ABI changes review for Tesseract](https://abi-laboratory.pro/?view=timeline&l=tesseract) - [Downloads](Downloads.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract/releases) - [Release Notes](ReleaseNotes.md) - [Changelog](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract/blob/main/ChangeLog) ## Tesseract with LSTM Tesseract **4.0** added a new OCR engine based on LSTM neural networks. It works well on x86/Linux with official Language Model data available for [100+ languages and 35+ scripts](Data-Files-in-different-versions.md). See [4.0x-Changelog](tess4/4.0x-Changelog.md) for more details. ## 5.x.x ### Source Code Tesseract **5.x.x** source code is available in the `main` branch of the [repository](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract). The `main` branch is using `5.0.0` semver versioning because C++ code modernization caused API incompatibility with 4.x release. ### Binaries Binaries are available from: - [Ubuntu - tesseract-ocr-devel PPA](https://launchpad.net/~alex-p/+archive/ubuntu/tesseract-ocr-devel) - [Debian - notesalexp.org](https://notesalexp.org/tesseract-ocr/#tesseract_5.x) - [Windows - Tesseract at UB Mannheim](https://github.com/UB-Mannheim/tesseract/wiki) ### Traineddata Files For detailed information about the different types of models, see [Data Files](Data-Files.md). Model files for version `4.00` are available from [tessdata tagged 4.00](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdata/releases/tag/4.00). It has models from November 2016. The individual language file links are available from the following link. - [tessdata 4.00 November 2016](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdoc/blob/master/Data-Files.md#data-files-for-version-400-november-29-2016) Model files for version `4.0.0` and later are available from [tessdata tagged 4.0.0](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdata/releases/tag/4.0.0). It has legacy models from September 2017 that have been updated with Integer versions of `tessdata_best` LSTM models. This set of traineddata files has support for both the legacy recognizer with `--oem 0` and for LSTM models with `--oem 1`. These models are available from the following Github repo. - [tessdata](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdata) Two more sets of `official` traineddata, trained at Google, are made available in the following Github repos. These do not have the legacy models and only have LSTM models usable with `--oem 1`. - [tessdata_best](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdata_best) - [tessdata_fast](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdata_fast) Language model traineddata files same as listed above for version `4.0.0` can be used with Tesseract `5.x.x`. These are available from: - [tessdata](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdata) - [tessdata_best](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdata_best) - [tessdata_fast](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdata_fast) - [tessdata_contrib](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdata_contrib) - [Links to Community Contributions](Data-Files-Contributions.md) ### Compiling and Installation - [Compiling and GitInstallation - Linux](Compiling-–-GitInstallation.md) - [Compiling - Other O/S](Compiling.md) - [Installation](Installation.md) - [Docker Containers](Docker-Containers.md) ### Usage - [Tips to Improve Recognition](ImproveQuality.md) - [Command Line Usage](Command-Line-Usage.md) - [Input Formats](InputFormats.md) - [Viewer Debugging](ViewerDebugging.md) - [Common Errors and Resolutions](Common-Errors-and-Resolutions.md) - [Frequently Asked Questions](FAQ.md) ### API Examples - [API Example](APIExample.md) - [API Example - user_patterns](APIExample-user_patterns.md) - [User App Example](User-App-Example.md) - [C++ Examples](Examples_C++.md) ### Technical Information - [Historical Technical Documentation](tess3/Technical-Documentation.md) - [API/ABI changes review for Tesseract](https://abi-laboratory.pro/?view=timeline&l=tesseract) - [Manual Pages](Documentation.md#manual-pages) - [Source Documentation generated by Doxygen](Documentation.md#source-documentation-generated-by-Doxygen) - [Neural Nets in Tesseract](tess4/NeuralNetsInTesseract4.00.md) - [VGSL Specs](tess4/VGSLSpecs.md) - [VGSL Specs info from Tensorflow](https://github.com/mldbai/tensorflow-models/blob/master/street/g3doc/vgslspecs.md) - [Network spec for tessdata_fast models](Data-Files-in-tessdata_fast.md) - [Network spec for tessdata_best models](Data-Files-in-tessdata_best.md) - [DAS 2016 tutorial slides](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/docs/tree/master/das_tutorial2016) Slides [#2](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/docs/blob/main/das_tutorial2016/2ArchitectureAndDataStructures.pdf), [#6](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/docs/blob/main/das_tutorial2016/6ModernizationEfforts.pdf), [#7](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/docs/blob/main/das_tutorial2016/7Building%20a%20Multi-Lingual%20OCR%20Engine.pdf) have information about LSTM integration in Tesseract 4.0x. - [Tesseract OpenCL - Experimental](TesseractOpenCL.md) ### Training for Tesseract 5 Training with `tesstrain.sh` (a.k.a Tesseract 4 training) is unsupported/abandoned. Please use scripts from [tesseract-ocr/tesstrain](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesstrain) for training. - [Train Tesseract LSTM with make from Single Line Images and Groundtruth Transcription](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesstrain) * [Examples of Training using tesstrain Makefile](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesstrain/wiki) - [Training LSTM Tesseract 5](tess5/TrainingTesseract-5.md) - based on [detailed Tesseract 4 tutorial and guide by Ray Smith](tess4/TrainingTesseract-4.00.md) ### Testing - [Benchmarks](Benchmarks.md) - [TestingTesseract](TestingTesseract.md) - [UNLV Testing of Tesseract](UNLV-Testing-of-Tesseract.md) ### External Projects - [AddOns](AddOns.md) - [User Projects - 3rdParty](User-Projects-–-3rdParty.md) ### User Manual for Old Versions - [Tesseract 4 Documentation](OldVersionDocs.md#tesseract-4) - [Tesseract 3 Documentation](OldVersionDocs.md#tesseract-3)