Vision client libraries

This page shows how to get started with the Cloud Client Libraries for the Vision API. Read more about the client libraries for Cloud APIs, including the older Google API Client Libraries, in Client Libraries Explained.

Install the client library

C++

See Setting up a C++ development environment for details about this client library's requirements and install dependencies.

C#

For more information, see Setting Up a C# Development Environment.

If you are using Visual Studio 2017 or higher, open nuget package manager window and type the following:

Install-Package Google.Apis

If you are using .NET Core command-line interface tools to install your dependencies, run the following command:

dotnet add package Google.Apis

Go

For more information, see Setting Up a Go Development Environment.

go get cloud.google.com/go/vision/apiv1

Java

For more information, see Setting Up a Java Development Environment.

If you are using Maven, add the following to your pom.xml file. For more information about BOMs, see The Google Cloud Platform Libraries BOM.

<dependencyManagement>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
      <artifactId>libraries-bom</artifactId>
      <version>26.13.0</version>
      <type>pom</type>
      <scope>import</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>

<dependencies>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
    <artifactId>google-cloud-vision</artifactId>
  </dependency>

If you are using Gradle, add the following to your dependencies:

implementation 'com.google.cloud:google-cloud-vision:3.16.0'

If you are using sbt, add the following to your dependencies:

libraryDependencies += "com.google.cloud" % "google-cloud-vision" % "3.16.0"

If you're using Visual Studio Code, IntelliJ, or Eclipse, you can add client libraries to your project using the following IDE plugins:

The plugins provide additional functionality, such as key management for service accounts. Refer to each plugin's documentation for details.

Node.js

For more information, see Setting Up a Node.js Development Environment.

npm install --save @google-cloud/vision

PHP

For more information, see Using PHP on Google Cloud.

composer require google/apiclient

Python

For more information, see Setting Up a Python Development Environment.

pip install --upgrade google-cloud-vision

Ruby

For more information, see Setting Up a Ruby Development Environment.

gem install google-api-client

Set up authentication

When you use client libraries, you use Application Default Credentials (ADC) to authenticate. For information about setting up ADC, see Provide credentials for Application Default Credentials. For information about using ADC with client libraries, see Authenticate using client libraries.

Use the client library

The following example shows how to use the client library.

C++

Before trying this sample, follow the C++ setup instructions in the Vision quickstart using client libraries.

To authenticate to Vision, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

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#include "google/cloud/vision/v1/image_annotator_client.h"
#include <iostream>

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) try {
  auto constexpr kDefaultUri =
      "gs://cloud-samples-data/vision/label/wakeupcat.jpg";
  if (argc > 2) {
    std::cerr << "Usage: " << argv[0] << " [gcs-uri]\n"
              << "  The gcs-uri must be in gs://... format. It defaults to "
              << kDefaultUri << "\n";
    return 1;
  }
  auto uri = std::string{argc == 2 ? argv[1] : kDefaultUri};

  namespace vision = ::google::cloud::vision_v1;
  auto client =
      vision::ImageAnnotatorClient(vision::MakeImageAnnotatorConnection());

  // Define the image we want to annotate
  google::cloud::vision::v1::Image image;
  image.mutable_source()->set_image_uri(uri);
  // Create a request to annotate this image with Request text annotations for a
  // file stored in GCS.
  google::cloud::vision::v1::AnnotateImageRequest request;
  *request.mutable_image() = std::move(image);
  request.add_features()->set_type(
      google::cloud::vision::v1::Feature::TEXT_DETECTION);

  google::cloud::vision::v1::BatchAnnotateImagesRequest batch_request;
  *batch_request.add_requests() = std::move(request);
  auto batch = client.BatchAnnotateImages(batch_request);
  if (!batch) throw std::move(batch).status();

  // Find the longest annotation and print it
  auto result = std::string{};
  for (auto const& response : batch->responses()) {
    for (auto const& annotation : response.text_annotations()) {
      if (result.size() < annotation.description().size()) {
        result = annotation.description();
      }
    }
  }
  std::cout << "The image contains this text: " << result << "\n";

  return 0;
} catch (google::cloud::Status const& status) {
  std::cerr << "google::cloud::Status thrown: " << status << "\n";
  return 1;
}

Go

Before trying this sample, follow the Go setup instructions in the Vision quickstart using client libraries. For more information, see the Vision Go API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vision, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

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// Sample vision-quickstart uses the Google Cloud Vision API to label an image.
package main

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"log"
	"os"

	vision "cloud.google.com/go/vision/apiv1"
)

func main() {
	ctx := context.Background()

	// Creates a client.
	client, err := vision.NewImageAnnotatorClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Failed to create client: %v", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	// Sets the name of the image file to annotate.
	filename := "../testdata/cat.jpg"

	file, err := os.Open(filename)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Failed to read file: %v", err)
	}
	defer file.Close()
	image, err := vision.NewImageFromReader(file)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Failed to create image: %v", err)
	}

	labels, err := client.DetectLabels(ctx, image, nil, 10)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Failed to detect labels: %v", err)
	}

	fmt.Println("Labels:")
	for _, label := range labels {
		fmt.Println(label.Description)
	}
}

Java

Before trying this sample, follow the Java setup instructions in the Vision quickstart using client libraries. For more information, see the Vision Java API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vision, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

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// Imports the Google Cloud client library

import com.google.cloud.vision.v1.AnnotateImageRequest;
import com.google.cloud.vision.v1.AnnotateImageResponse;
import com.google.cloud.vision.v1.BatchAnnotateImagesResponse;
import com.google.cloud.vision.v1.EntityAnnotation;
import com.google.cloud.vision.v1.Feature;
import com.google.cloud.vision.v1.Feature.Type;
import com.google.cloud.vision.v1.Image;
import com.google.cloud.vision.v1.ImageAnnotatorClient;
import com.google.protobuf.ByteString;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class QuickstartSample {
  public static void main(String... args) throws Exception {
    // Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs to be created
    // once, and can be reused for multiple requests. After completing all of your requests, call
    // the "close" method on the client to safely clean up any remaining background resources.
    try (ImageAnnotatorClient vision = ImageAnnotatorClient.create()) {

      // The path to the image file to annotate
      String fileName = "./resources/wakeupcat.jpg";

      // Reads the image file into memory
      Path path = Paths.get(fileName);
      byte[] data = Files.readAllBytes(path);
      ByteString imgBytes = ByteString.copyFrom(data);

      // Builds the image annotation request
      List<AnnotateImageRequest> requests = new ArrayList<>();
      Image img = Image.newBuilder().setContent(imgBytes).build();
      Feature feat = Feature.newBuilder().setType(Type.LABEL_DETECTION).build();
      AnnotateImageRequest request =
          AnnotateImageRequest.newBuilder().addFeatures(feat).setImage(img).build();
      requests.add(request);

      // Performs label detection on the image file
      BatchAnnotateImagesResponse response = vision.batchAnnotateImages(requests);
      List<AnnotateImageResponse> responses = response.getResponsesList();

      for (AnnotateImageResponse res : responses) {
        if (res.hasError()) {
          System.out.format("Error: %s%n", res.getError().getMessage());
          return;
        }

        for (EntityAnnotation annotation : res.getLabelAnnotationsList()) {
          annotation
              .getAllFields()
              .forEach((k, v) -> System.out.format("%s : %s%n", k, v.toString()));
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Node.js

Before trying this sample, follow the Node.js setup instructions in the Vision quickstart using client libraries. For more information, see the Vision Node.js API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vision, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

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async function quickstart() {
  // Imports the Google Cloud client library
  const vision = require('@google-cloud/vision');

  // Creates a client
  const client = new vision.ImageAnnotatorClient();

  // Performs label detection on the image file
  const [result] = await client.labelDetection('./resources/wakeupcat.jpg');
  const labels = result.labelAnnotations;
  console.log('Labels:');
  labels.forEach(label => console.log(label.description));
}
quickstart();

Python

Before trying this sample, follow the Python setup instructions in the Vision quickstart using client libraries. For more information, see the Vision Python API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vision, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

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import os

# Imports the Google Cloud client library
from google.cloud import vision



def run_quickstart() -> vision.EntityAnnotation:
    """Provides a quick start example for Cloud Vision."""

    # Instantiates a client
    client = vision.ImageAnnotatorClient()

    # The name of the image file to annotate
    file_name = os.path.abspath("resources/wakeupcat.jpg")

    # Loads the image into memory
    with open(file_name, "rb") as image_file:
        content = image_file.read()

    image = vision.Image(content=content)

    # Performs label detection on the image file
    response = client.label_detection(image=image)
    labels = response.label_annotations

    print('Labels:')
    for label in labels:
        print(label.description)

    return labels


if __name__ == "__main__":
    run_quickstart()

Additional resources

C++

C#

Go

Java

Node.js

PHP

Python

Ruby

Additional client libraries

In addition to the libraries shown above, Spring Cloud Google Cloud is available for Java applications. Spring Vision API helps you use Cloud Vision in any application that's built with the Spring Framework.

To get started, learn how to add Spring Cloud Vision to your application.

Try it for yourself

If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how Cloud Vision API performs in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

Try Cloud Vision API free