{"id":29812,"date":"2019-04-23T20:29:30","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T12:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/?p=29812"},"modified":"2019-04-22T21:58:31","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T13:58:31","slug":"extract-text-from-images-imgclip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/extract-text-from-images-imgclip\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Extract Text from Images Using Command Line"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s easy enough to read an image and pull the text yourself. But dynamically pulling text<\/strong> from a photo is a bit tougher, and thankfully, imgclip<\/a><\/strong> offers a fairly simple solution.<\/p>\n

This command-line tool<\/strong> runs in the terminal for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It simply takes an argument for the image file along with the language, then returns the text<\/strong> copied to your clipboard.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tRead Also:<\/strong>\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\tWhy All Developers Should Learn Command Line<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

You can install the whole library via npm and it\u2019s a pretty simple install<\/strong>. The thing is only a few KB large<\/strong> and it comes with a JS file that you can browse on GitHub.<\/p>\n

Imgclip uses the Tesseract.js<\/a><\/strong> library for automating image processing and pulling text via OCR<\/abbr>. It\u2019s one of the most powerful OCR libraries to date, and it\u2019s completely open source just like imgclip.<\/p>\n

I think I\u2019m most impressed with the quality and speed of this tool. It really does work to pull accurate text<\/strong> and it\u2019s one of the simplest tools to use.<\/p>\n

The imgclip command should be run directly in the terminal<\/strong>, followed by the relative path to the image. You can also add four options<\/strong> onto the end to customize the output.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. -h<\/code>, --help<\/code>:<\/strong> outputs usage information<\/li>\n
  2. -V<\/code>, --version<\/code>:<\/strong> outputs the version number<\/li>\n
  3. -l<\/code>, --lang<\/code>:<\/strong> outputs the language of the text in the image<\/li>\n
  4. -p<\/code>, --print<\/code>:<\/strong> prints out the text in the image (instead of copying to clipboard)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As of this writing, Tesseract supports 65 languages<\/a><\/strong> with more on the way. The code you append to the --lang<\/code> tag should be whatever code is used in those Tesseract files.<\/p>\n

    For example, -l eng<\/code> will search the image for English text<\/strong>, while -l jpn<\/code> will search for Japanese text<\/strong> and you can even run -l jpn_vert<\/code> to search for vertically-oriented Japanese text<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    Since imgclip relies heavily on Tesseract, you basically have the power of that entire library at your disposal.<\/p>\n

    To get started<\/strong>, visit the GitHub page<\/a> and download a copy locally, or install it to a specific directory via npm. Then, you can run the tool in the terminal like an application to parse any image you want<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    To see imgclip in action<\/strong>, check out this brief video<\/a> created as an imgclip demo.<\/p>\n

    \"imgclip<\/a><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It\u2019s easy enough to read an image and pull the text yourself. But dynamically pulling text from a photo is a bit tougher, and thankfully, imgclip offers a fairly simple solution. This command-line tool runs in the terminal for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It simply takes an argument for the image file along with the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3393],"tags":[3053,511],"topic":[4520],"class_list":["entry-content","is-maxi"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Extract Text from Images Using Command Line - Hongkiat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It's easy enough to read an image and pull the text yourself. 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But dynamically pulling text from a photo is a bit tougher, and thankfully, imgclip offers a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/extract-text-from-images-imgclip\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Hongkiat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hongkiatcom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-23T12:29:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/asciinema.org\/a\/1n7wfprarthnh9htkavu3trkl.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jake Rocheleau\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@hongkiat\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@hongkiat\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jake Rocheleau\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/extract-text-from-images-imgclip\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/extract-text-from-images-imgclip\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jake Rocheleau\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/966b2daea15283b4145e71aa98a82c2a\"},\"headline\":\"How to Extract Text from Images Using Command Line\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-23T12:29:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/extract-text-from-images-imgclip\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":360,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/extract-text-from-images-imgclip\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/asciinema.org\\\/a\\\/1n7wfprarthnh9htkavu3trkl.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Command Line\",\"Web Developers\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Toolkit\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/extract-text-from-images-imgclip\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/extract-text-from-images-imgclip\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/extract-text-from-images-imgclip\\\/\",\"name\":\"How to Extract Text from Images Using Command Line - Hongkiat\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/extract-text-from-images-imgclip\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/extract-text-from-images-imgclip\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/asciinema.org\\\/a\\\/1n7wfprarthnh9htkavu3trkl.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-23T12:29:30+00:00\",\"description\":\"It's easy enough to read an image and pull the text yourself. 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