Tutorial: Create Your First OCR Project for a Console Application

In this tutorial, you will configure a C# or VB.NET project for a console application and use ImageGear .NET OCR capabilities to load an image, OCR and export the data to the console.

The following tutorial refers specifically to 64-bit installations; for 32-bit installations:

Your project should already be set to compile to target Debug and x86, and you should have the directory: $YOURLOCALPROJ\bin\x86\Debug\.
Throughout these instructions, replace x64 with x86.
The 32-bit ImageGear binaries are found in $INSTALLDIR\ImageGear .NET v24\Bin\

Using the desired version of Visual Studio (2010 or later):

Create a new "Console Application" project, using C# or VB.NET, and name the project: my_first_OCR_project
If you installed ImageGear .NET 64-bit, using the Configuration Manager, create a new project platform (if you don't have one already) for x64. Make sure your project is set to compile targeting Debug and x64. Confirm you now have $YOURLOCALPROJ\bin\x64\Debug\, and if it's not there, create it.
Add references and required resources into your projects in one of the following ways:
- Recommended: use our NuGet Packages. For this project, you need the following package:
  Accusoft.ImageGear.Recognition.nupkg (https://www.nuget.org/packages/Accusoft.ImageGear.Recognition/ )
- Manually:
- Copy all files (and folders) inside $INSTALLDIR\ImageGear .NET v24 64-bit\Bin\ to your local output bin directory in your project (i.e., $YOURLOCALPROJ\bin\x64\Debug\ ).
- Add the following references to your project from $YOURLOCALPROJ\bin\x64\Debug\:
- ImageGear24.Core.dll
- ImageGear24.Evaluation.dll
- ImageGear24.Formats.Common.dll
- ImageGear24.Formats.SimplifiedMetadata.dll
- ImageGear24.Recognition.dll
- ImageGear24.Recognition.Forms.dll

Your output target directory (output path) should be set to $YOURLOCALPROJ\bin\x64\Debug\

At this point all necessary assembly references and resources have been added to the project. Make sure to replace C:\PATHTOIMAGE\ with your own image filename and path:
Add the following using statements to the top of the file.
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- VBNET
C#
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using System.IO; using ImageGear.Core; using ImageGear.Formats; using ImageGear.Recognition; using ImageGear.Evaluation;
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Imports ImageGear.Core Imports ImageGear.Formats Imports ImageGear.Recognition Imports ImageGear.Evaluation Imports System.IO

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using System.IO; using ImageGear.Core; using ImageGear.Formats; using ImageGear.Recognition; using ImageGear.Evaluation;

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Imports ImageGear.Core Imports ImageGear.Formats Imports ImageGear.Recognition Imports ImageGear.Evaluation Imports System.IO

Add the following code to create a private method to OCR, and export the data to the console. This code sets up licensing, initializes the ImageGear Formats assembly and initializes the Recognition engine.

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namespace my_first_OCR_project { class Program { public void OCRFile(string fileToBeRecognizedPath) { // Initialize the license. ImGearEvaluationManager.Initialize(); ImGearEvaluationManager.Mode = ImGearEvaluationMode.Watermark; // Initialize the common formats. ImGearCommonFormats.Initialize(); // Initialize the Recognition object. ImGearRecognition igRecognition = new ImGearRecognition(); ImGearPage igPage;

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namespace my_first_OCR_project
{
   class Program
   {
     public void OCRFile(string fileToBeRecognizedPath)
     {
       // Initialize the license.
       ImGearEvaluationManager.Initialize();
       ImGearEvaluationManager.Mode = ImGearEvaluationMode.Watermark;
       // Initialize the common formats.
       ImGearCommonFormats.Initialize();
       // Initialize the Recognition object.
       ImGearRecognition igRecognition = new ImGearRecognition();
       ImGearPage igPage;

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Module Module1 Public Sub OCRFile(fileToOCR As String) ' Initialize the license. ImGearEvaluationManager.Initialize() ImGearEvaluationManager.Mode = ImGearEvaluationMode.Watermark ' Initialize the common formats. ImGearCommonFormats.Initialize() ' Initialize the Recognition object. Dim igRecognition As New ImGearRecognition() Dim igPage As ImGearPage

Add the following code to load the image, and set the ImGearRecPage.

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using (FileStream localFile = new FileStream(fileToBeRecognizedPath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read)) igPage = ImGearFileFormats.LoadPage(localFile, 0); ImGearRecPage igRecPage = igRecognition.ImportPage((ImGearRasterPage)igPage);

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using (FileStream localFile = new FileStream(fileToBeRecognizedPath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
   igPage = ImGearFileFormats.LoadPage(localFile, 0);
ImGearRecPage igRecPage = igRecognition.ImportPage((ImGearRasterPage)igPage);

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Using localFile As New FileStream(fileToOCR, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read) igPage = ImGearFileFormats.LoadPage(localFile, 0) End Using Dim igRecPage As ImGearRecPage = igRecognition.ImportPage(DirectCast(igPage, ImGearRasterPage))

Add the following code to preprocess the image, and output the data to the console.

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igRecPage.Image.Preprocess(); igRecPage.Recognize(); Console.Write(igRecPage.Text);

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igRecPage.Image.Preprocess() igRecPage.Recognize() Console.Write(igRecPage.Text)

Add the following code to dispose the igRecognition and page object.

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// You must explicitly call the page/document dispose method before calling igRecognition.Dispose() igRecPage.Dispose(); igRecognition.Dispose();

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' You must explicitly call the page/document dispose method before calling igRecognition.Dispose() igRecPage.Dispose() igRecognition.Dispose()

Finally, add in the Main function, the OCRFile method passing in your image, and output to the console.

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static void Main(string[] args) { Program myProgram = new Program(); myProgram.OCRFile(@"C:\PATHTOOCR\FILENAME.tif"); }