Command Line Usage
This page has not been updated for Tesseract 4.0.
Usage:
tesseract --help | --help-psm | --version
tesseract --list-langs [--tessdata-dir PATH]
tesseract --print-parameters [options...] [configfile...]
tesseract imagename|stdin outputbase|stdout [options...] [configfile...]
OCR options:
--tessdata-dir PATH Specify the location of tessdata path.
--user-words PATH Specify the location of user words file.
--user-patterns PATH Specify the location of user patterns file.
-l LANG[+LANG] Specify language(s) used for OCR.
-c VAR=VALUE Set value for config variables.
Multiple -c arguments are allowed.
-psm NUM Specify page segmentation mode.
NOTE: These options must occur before any configfile.
Page segmentation modes:
0 Orientation and script detection (OSD) only.
1 Automatic page segmentation with OSD.
2 Automatic page segmentation, but no OSD, or OCR.
3 Fully automatic page segmentation, but no OSD. (Default)
4 Assume a single column of text of variable sizes.
5 Assume a single uniform block of vertically aligned text.
6 Assume a single uniform block of text.
7 Treat the image as a single text line.
8 Treat the image as a single word.
9 Treat the image as a single word in a circle.
10 Treat the image as a single character.
Single options:
-h, --help Show this help message.
--help-psm Show page segmentation modes.
-v, --version Show version information.
--list-langs List available languages for tesseract engine.
--print-parameters Print tesseract parameters to stdout.
Use the config variable as part of command -c tessedit_page_number=0
tesseract imagename outputbase
This uses English as the default language and 3 as the Page Segmentation Mode. The default output format is text.
osd.traineddata, for Orientation and Segmentation and eng.traineddata and other language data files for English should be in the "tessdata" directory. TESSDATA_PREFIX environment variable should be set to the parent directory of "tessdata" directory.
The following command would give the same result as above, if eng.traineddata and osd.traineddata files are in /usr/share/tessdata directory.
tesseract --tessdata-dir /usr/share imagename outputbase -l eng -psm 3
Following examples use this image which has text in multiple languages.
Add '-l LANG' to the command where LANG is three character language code from the list of supported languages. If this is not given then English language is assumed by default.
tesseract --tessdata-dir ./ ./testing/eurotext.png ./testing/eurotext-eng -l eng
Output
The (quick) [brown] {fox} jumps!
Over the $43,456.78 <lazy> #90 dog
& duck/goose, as 12.5% of E-mail
from [email protected] is spam.
Der ,,schnelle” braune Fuchs springt
fiber den faulen Hund. Le renard brun
«rapide» saute par-dessus le chien
paresseux. La volpe marrone rapida
salta sopra i] cane pigro. El zorro
marrén répido salta sobre el perro
perezoso. A raposa marrom répida
salta sobre 0 C50 preguieoso.
Add '-l LANG[+LANG]' to the command line to use multiple languages together for recognition
tesseract --tessdata-dir ./ ./testing/eurotext.png ./testing/eurotext-engdeu -l eng+deu
Output
The (quick) [brown] {fox} jumps!
Over the $43,456.78 <lazy> #90 dog
& duck/goose, as 12.5% of E-mail
from [email protected] is spam.
Der „schnelle” braune Fuchs springt
über den faulen Hund. Le renard brun
«rapide» saute par-dessus le chien
paresseux. La volpe marrone rapida
salta sopra il cane pigro. El zorro
marrön räpido salta sobre el perro
perezoso. A raposa marrom räpida
salta sobre o cäo preguieoso.
The output can be different based on the order of languages, so -l eng+hin can give different result than -l hin+eng.
Following examples use a greyscale version of this image which has text in multiple languages - Hindi and English.
Using English as primary language and then Hindi
tesseract --tessdata-dir ./ ./testing/bilingual.jpg ./testing/bilingual-enghin -l eng+hin
Output
हिदीसेअंठौजी
HINDI To
ENGLISH
—
Using Hindi as primary language and then English
tesseract --tessdata-dir ./ ./testing/bilingual.jpg ./testing/bilingual-hineng -l hin+eng
Output
हिंदी से अंग्रेजी
H I N D I T o
E N G L I S H
—
tesseract --tessdata-dir ./ ./testing/eurotext.png ./testing/eurotext-eng -l eng pdf
This creates a pdf with the image and a separate searchable text layer with the recognized text.
tesseract c:\temp\test_ara.jpg -l ara -psm 3 c:\temp\test_ara pdf
Files are attached (source JPG and output PDF)
![test_ara.jpg] (https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/17473681/13320324/bc160e22-dbd0-11e5-8090-6f3728fcc06d.jpg) [test_ara.pdf] (https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract/files/146534/test_ara.pdf)
Use 'hocr' config file by adding hocr at the end of the command to get the HOCR output.
tesseract --tessdata-dir ./ ./testing/eurotext.png ./testing/eurotext-eng -l eng hocr
Output
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
<title></title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
<meta name='ocr-system' content='tesseract 3.05.00dev' />
<meta name='ocr-capabilities' content='ocr_page ocr_carea ocr_par ocr_line ocrx_word'/>
</head>
<body>
<div class='ocr_page' id='page_1' title='image "./testing/eurotext.png"; bbox 0 0 1024 800; ppageno 0'>
<div class='ocr_carea' id='block_1_1' title="bbox 98 66 918 661">
<p class='ocr_par' id='par_1_1' lang='eng' title="bbox 98 66 918 661">
<span class='ocr_line' id='line_1_1' title="bbox 105 66 823 113; baseline 0.015 -18; x_size 39; x_descenders 7; x_ascenders 9"><span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_1' title='bbox 105 66 178 97; x_wconf 90'>The</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_2' title='bbox 205 67 347 106; x_wconf 87'><strong>(quick)</strong></span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_3' title='bbox 376 69 528 109; x_wconf 89'>[brown]</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_4' title='bbox 559 71 663 110; x_wconf 89'>{fox}</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_5' title='bbox 687 73 823 113; x_wconf 89'>jumps!</span>
</span>
<span class='ocr_line' id='line_1_2' title="bbox 104 115 887 165; baseline 0.013 -19; x_size 42; x_descenders 9; x_ascenders 11"><span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_6' title='bbox 104 115 199 147; x_wconf 91'>Over</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_7' title='bbox 224 117 283 148; x_wconf 89'>the</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_8' title='bbox 310 117 533 155; x_wconf 88'>$43,456.78</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_9' title='bbox 561 121 696 162; x_wconf 92'><lazy></span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_10' title='bbox 722 123 791 154; x_wconf 92'>#90</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_11' title='bbox 818 125 887 165; x_wconf 89'>dog</span>
</span>
<span class='ocr_line' id='line_1_3' title="bbox 103 165 835 206; baseline 0.014 -10; x_size 40; x_descenders 8; x_ascenders 9"><span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_12' title='bbox 103 165 134 196; x_wconf 91'>&</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_13' title='bbox 160 166 396 206; x_wconf 88'>duck/goose,</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_14' title='bbox 424 178 463 201; x_wconf 92'>as</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_15' title='bbox 493 171 614 203; x_wconf 91'>12.5%</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_16' title='bbox 638 172 680 204; x_wconf 89'>of</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_17' title='bbox 700 174 835 206; x_wconf 91'>E-mail</span>
</span>
<span class='ocr_line' id='line_1_4' title="bbox 103 215 911 264; baseline 0.015 -19; x_size 39; x_descenders 8; x_ascenders 9"><span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_18' title='bbox 103 215 194 247; x_wconf 89'>from</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_19' title='bbox 220 219 716 260; x_wconf 87'>[email protected]</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_20' title='bbox 742 223 773 255; x_wconf 93'>is</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_21' title='bbox 799 233 911 264; x_wconf 88'>spam.</span>
</span>
<span class='ocr_line' id='line_1_5' title="bbox 102 266 877 314; baseline 0.013 -18; x_size 39; x_descenders 8; x_ascenders 9"><span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_22' title='bbox 102 266 173 297; x_wconf 89'>Der</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_23' title='bbox 198 267 406 302; x_wconf 78'>,,schnelle”</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_24' title='bbox 433 269 568 302; x_wconf 91'>braune</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_25' title='bbox 594 272 709 304; x_wconf 91'>Fuchs</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_26' title='bbox 735 274 877 314; x_wconf 83'>springt</span>
</span>
<span class='ocr_line' id='line_1_6' title="bbox 102 315 918 357; baseline 0.013 -11; x_size 39.311646; x_descenders 8.3116436; x_ascenders 9"><span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_27' title='bbox 102 315 187 347; x_wconf 75'>fiber</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_28' title='bbox 212 317 280 348; x_wconf 91'>den</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_29' title='bbox 306 318 430 350; x_wconf 86'>faulen</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_30' title='bbox 456 320 572 352; x_wconf 92'>Hund.</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_31' title='bbox 601 322 648 354; x_wconf 87'>Le</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_32' title='bbox 674 324 803 356; x_wconf 87'>renard</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_33' title='bbox 827 325 918 357; x_wconf 90'>brun</span>
</span>
<span class='ocr_line' id='line_1_7' title="bbox 101 366 833 409; baseline 0.016 -15; x_size 39; x_descenders 8; x_ascenders 9"><span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_34' title='bbox 101 366 274 405; x_wconf 88'>«rapide»</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_35' title='bbox 302 373 403 400; x_wconf 88'>saute</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_36' title='bbox 428 371 641 409; x_wconf 87'>par-dessus</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_37' title='bbox 667 372 700 404; x_wconf 91'>le</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_38' title='bbox 725 374 833 406; x_wconf 90'>chien</span>
</span>
<span class='ocr_line' id='line_1_8' title="bbox 100 419 859 464; baseline 0.013 -18; x_size 39; x_descenders 8; x_ascenders 8"><span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_39' title='bbox 100 424 308 454; x_wconf 89'>paresseux.</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_40' title='bbox 337 419 384 450; x_wconf 90'>La</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_41' title='bbox 409 420 516 459; x_wconf 90'>volpe</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_42' title='bbox 543 430 707 455; x_wconf 89'>marrone</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_43' title='bbox 733 424 859 464; x_wconf 85'>rapida</span>
</span>
<span class='ocr_line' id='line_1_9' title="bbox 100 466 834 511; baseline 0.014 -15; x_size 40; x_descenders 9; x_ascenders 9"><span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_44' title='bbox 100 466 192 497; x_wconf 90'>salta</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_45' title='bbox 219 475 324 507; x_wconf 90'>sopra</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_46' title='bbox 351 468 376 499; x_wconf 90'>i]</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_47' title='bbox 403 478 491 501; x_wconf 90'>cane</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_48' title='bbox 517 471 633 511; x_wconf 89'>pigro.</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_49' title='bbox 662 473 703 504; x_wconf 96'>El</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_50' title='bbox 729 482 834 506; x_wconf 88'>zorro</span>
</span>
<span class='ocr_line' id='line_1_10' title="bbox 99 516 833 563; baseline 0.014 -17; x_size 39; x_descenders 8; x_ascenders 9"><span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_51' title='bbox 99 516 242 548; x_wconf 78'>marrén</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_52' title='bbox 268 517 395 557; x_wconf 77'>répido</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_53' title='bbox 421 520 513 552; x_wconf 90'>salta</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_54' title='bbox 540 521 644 554; x_wconf 93'>sobre</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_55' title='bbox 669 523 702 554; x_wconf 90'>el</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_56' title='bbox 728 532 833 563; x_wconf 87'>perro</span>
</span>
<span class='ocr_line' id='line_1_11' title="bbox 98 568 829 613; baseline 0.014 -17; x_size 40; x_descenders 8; x_ascenders 10"><span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_57' title='bbox 98 574 284 604; x_wconf 89'>perezoso.</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_58' title='bbox 313 568 342 598; x_wconf 92'>A</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_59' title='bbox 369 578 497 609; x_wconf 91'>raposa</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_60' title='bbox 523 579 677 604; x_wconf 89'>marrom</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_61' title='bbox 703 573 829 613; x_wconf 75'>répida</span>
</span>
<span class='ocr_line' id='line_1_12' title="bbox 98 616 710 661; baseline 0.013 -15; x_size 41; x_descenders 9; x_ascenders 9"><span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_62' title='bbox 98 616 190 647; x_wconf 86'>salta</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_63' title='bbox 217 617 320 649; x_wconf 90'>sobre</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_64' title='bbox 346 627 366 650; x_wconf 89'><strong>0</strong></span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_65' title='bbox 391 621 456 651; x_wconf 72'>C50</span> <span class='ocrx_word' id='word_1_66' title='bbox 481 621 710 661; x_wconf 74'>preguieoso.</span>
</span>
</p>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Use 'tsv' config file by adding tsv at the end of the command to get the TSV output.
tesseract --tessdata-dir ./ ./testing/eurotext.png ./testing/eurotext-eng -l eng tsv
Output
level page_num block_num par_num line_num word_num left top width height conf text
1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1024 800 -1
2 1 1 0 0 0 98 66 821 596 -1
3 1 1 1 0 0 98 66 821 596 -1
4 1 1 1 1 0 105 66 719 48 -1
5 1 1 1 1 1 105 66 74 32 90 The
5 1 1 1 1 2 205 67 143 40 87 (quick)
5 1 1 1 1 3 376 69 153 41 89 [brown]
5 1 1 1 1 4 559 71 105 40 89 {fox}
5 1 1 1 1 5 687 73 137 41 89 jumps!
4 1 1 1 2 0 104 115 784 51 -1
5 1 1 1 2 1 104 115 96 33 91 Over
5 1 1 1 2 2 224 117 60 32 89 the
5 1 1 1 2 3 310 117 224 39 88 $43,456.78
5 1 1 1 2 4 561 121 136 42 92 <lazy>
5 1 1 1 2 5 722 123 70 32 92 #90
5 1 1 1 2 6 818 125 70 41 89 dog
4 1 1 1 3 0 103 165 733 42 -1
5 1 1 1 3 1 103 165 32 32 91 &
5 1 1 1 3 2 160 166 237 41 88 duck/goose,
5 1 1 1 3 3 424 178 40 24 92 as
5 1 1 1 3 4 493 171 122 33 91 12.5%
5 1 1 1 3 5 638 172 43 33 89 of
5 1 1 1 3 6 700 174 136 33 91 E-mail
4 1 1 1 4 0 103 215 809 50 -1
5 1 1 1 4 1 103 215 92 33 89 from
5 1 1 1 4 2 220 219 497 42 87 [email protected]
5 1 1 1 4 3 742 223 32 33 93 is
5 1 1 1 4 4 799 233 113 32 88 spam.
4 1 1 1 5 0 102 266 776 49 -1
5 1 1 1 5 1 102 266 72 32 89 Der
5 1 1 1 5 2 198 267 209 36 78 ,,schnelle”
5 1 1 1 5 3 433 269 136 34 91 braune
5 1 1 1 5 4 594 272 116 33 91 Fuchs
5 1 1 1 5 5 735 274 143 41 83 springt
4 1 1 1 6 0 102 315 817 43 -1
5 1 1 1 6 1 102 315 86 33 75 fiber
5 1 1 1 6 2 212 317 69 32 91 den
5 1 1 1 6 3 306 318 125 33 86 faulen
5 1 1 1 6 4 456 320 117 33 92 Hund.
5 1 1 1 6 5 601 322 48 33 87 Le
5 1 1 1 6 6 674 324 130 33 87 renard
5 1 1 1 6 7 827 325 92 33 90 brun
4 1 1 1 7 0 101 366 733 44 -1
5 1 1 1 7 1 101 366 174 40 88 «rapide»
5 1 1 1 7 2 302 373 102 28 88 saute
5 1 1 1 7 3 428 371 214 39 87 par-dessus
5 1 1 1 7 4 667 372 34 33 91 le
5 1 1 1 7 5 725 374 109 33 90 chien
4 1 1 1 8 0 100 419 760 46 -1
5 1 1 1 8 1 100 424 209 31 89 paresseux.
5 1 1 1 8 2 337 419 48 32 90 La
5 1 1 1 8 3 409 420 108 40 90 volpe
5 1 1 1 8 4 543 430 165 26 89 marrone
5 1 1 1 8 5 733 424 127 41 85 rapida
4 1 1 1 9 0 100 466 735 46 -1
5 1 1 1 9 1 100 466 93 32 90 salta
5 1 1 1 9 2 219 475 106 33 90 sopra
5 1 1 1 9 3 351 468 26 32 90 i]
5 1 1 1 9 4 403 478 89 24 90 cane
5 1 1 1 9 5 517 471 117 41 89 pigro.
5 1 1 1 9 6 662 473 42 32 96 El
5 1 1 1 9 7 729 482 106 25 88 zorro
4 1 1 1 10 0 99 516 735 48 -1
5 1 1 1 10 1 99 516 144 33 78 marrén
5 1 1 1 10 2 268 517 128 41 77 répido
5 1 1 1 10 3 421 520 93 33 90 salta
5 1 1 1 10 4 540 521 105 34 93 sobre
5 1 1 1 10 5 669 523 34 32 90 el
5 1 1 1 10 6 728 532 106 32 87 perro
4 1 1 1 11 0 98 568 732 46 -1
5 1 1 1 11 1 98 574 187 31 89 perezoso.
5 1 1 1 11 2 313 568 30 31 92 A
5 1 1 1 11 3 369 578 129 32 91 raposa
5 1 1 1 11 4 523 579 155 26 89 marrom
5 1 1 1 11 5 703 573 127 41 75 répida
4 1 1 1 12 0 98 616 613 46 -1
5 1 1 1 12 1 98 616 93 32 86 salta
5 1 1 1 12 2 217 617 104 33 90 sobre
5 1 1 1 12 3 346 627 21 24 89 0
5 1 1 1 12 4 391 621 66 31 72 C50
5 1 1 1 12 5 481 621 230 41 74 preguieoso.
The following examples are using this image with text in Devanagari script and Sanskrit language.
tesseract --tessdata-dir /usr/share testing/san002.png testing/san002-psm6 -l san -psm 6
Output
विर्व्य 16
ज्यालत्रुखीसह्स्रनामक्तोव्रम्- नामाकळिट्. 191
दुर्गासहस्रनामस्तीत्रम्- १ नामांक्ळिन्नू ॰213
द्रुर्गासहस्रनत्मस्तीन्रम्- २ नामावळिऽ 238
द्दुगसिद्द्स्रनत्मक्तोत्रम्दकाराद्दि(३) नामाव'ळिऽ 263
ट्टुगसिहस्रनामक्तोत्रम्- ४ नामावळिइं 300
पार्वतीं ह्यो) सहस्रनामातोत्रम्- नामावळिऽ’ 329
द्दुर्गानवाक्षरीन्निशतींनत्माव'क्ति 355
द्बुर्गाष्टोत्तरङ्प्तनत्मरतोव्रम्- नामावक्ति 360
र्व्यत्मामस्वोत्रम्- नामाक्ळिऽ 363
अन्नपूण्स्सिहस्रनत्मस्तीत्रम्- नामावक्ति 365
अन्नघूर्गाष्टोत्तस्यातनामस्तीन्रम्- नामावक्ति 394
क्रुलकुर्व्यसहस्रनत्मक्तोत्रम्- कवचम्… नामावळिथ् 397-
कुमारींसहृस्रनामक्तोन्नम्- नामावळिय् 432
गङ्ग’म्यासद्वृस्रनप्मक्तोव्रम्- नाम।वक्ति` 457
गङ्ग’म्याष्टोत्तराप्तनामप्तोत्रम्- नामावळिऽ 488
गङ्गादातनप्तास्तोत्रम्- नामावक्ति 491
यमुनासहस्रनामरतोव्रम्- नम्पावळिय् 493
'शिवगङ्गासद्दृस्रनत्माव'ळि 517
गम्पत्रीसह्स्रनत्मक्तोत्रम्- नाम।व'ळिऽ (१) 531
tesseract --tessdata-dir /usr/share testing/san002.png testing/san002-psm3 -l san -psm 3
Output
ज्यंग्लत्रुखीसह्स्रनामलोत्रम्- नामावळिट्.
दुर्गासहस्रनामस्तीत्रम्- १ नामाक्ळि
दुर्गासहस्रनत्मस्तीत्र्दुं'म्- २ नामावळिऽ
द्बुगसिद्द्स्रनत्मरत्तोत्रम्दकारादि (३) नामावळि
पार्वतीं ह्यो) सहम्रनम्परतोत्रम्- नामावळिऽ’
फुलकुर्व्यसहस्रनत्मक्तोत्रम्-क्ताचम्-नत्माचळिऽ
गम्यत्रीसह्स्रनत्मक्तोत्रम्-नग्मग्वळिऽ(१)
191
,213
238
300
329
355
360
363.
365
394
397-
432
457
488
491
493
517
531