Detect text in images

Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

The Vision API can detect and extract text from images. There are two annotation features that support optical character recognition (OCR):

  • TEXT_DETECTION detects and extracts text from any image. For example, a photograph might contain a street sign or traffic sign. The JSON includes the entire extracted string, as well as individual words, and their bounding boxes.

    Road sign image

  • DOCUMENT_TEXT_DETECTION also extracts text from an image, but the response is optimized for dense text and documents. The JSON includes page, block, paragraph, word, and break information.

    Dense image with annotations

    Learn more about DOCUMENT_TEXT_DETECTION for handwriting extraction and text extraction from files (PDF/TIFF).

Try it for yourself

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Try Cloud Vision free

Text detection requests

Set up your Google Cloud project and authentication

Detect text in a local image

You can use the Vision API to perform feature detection on a local image file.

For REST requests, send the contents of the image file as a base64 encoded string in the body of your request.

For gcloud and client library requests, specify the path to a local image in your request.

gcloud

To perform text detection, use the gcloud ml vision detect-text command as shown in the following example:

gcloud ml vision detect-text ./path/to/local/file.jpg

REST

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

  • BASE64_ENCODED_IMAGE: The base64 representation (ASCII string) of your binary image data. This string should look similar to the following string:
    • /9j/4QAYRXhpZgAA...9tAVx/zDQDlGxn//2Q==
    Visit the base64 encode topic for more information.
  • PROJECT_ID: Your Google Cloud project ID.

HTTP method and URL: 

POST https://vision.googleapis.com/v1/images:annotate

Request JSON body: 

{
  "requests": [
    {
      "image": {
        "content": "BASE64_ENCODED_IMAGE"
      },
      "features": [
        {
          "type": "TEXT_DETECTION"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

To send your request, choose one of these options:

curl

Save the request body in a file named request.json, and execute the following command: 

curl -X POST \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "x-goog-user-project: PROJECT_ID" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
     -d @request.json \
     "https://vision.googleapis.com/v1/images:annotate"

PowerShell

Save the request body in a file named request.json, and execute the following command: 

$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred"; "x-goog-user-project" = "PROJECT_ID" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method POST `
    -Headers $headers `
    -ContentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8" `
    -InFile request.json `
    -Uri "https://vision.googleapis.com/v1/images:annotate" | Select-Object -Expand Content

If the request is successful, the server returns a 200 OK HTTP status code and the response in JSON format.

A TEXT_DETECTION response includes the detected phrase, its bounding box, and individual words and their bounding boxes.

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. 


// detectText gets text from the Vision API for an image at the given file path.
func detectText(w io.Writer, file string) error {
	ctx := context.Background()

	client, err := vision.NewImageAnnotatorClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	f, err := os.Open(file)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	defer f.Close()

	image, err := vision.NewImageFromReader(f)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	annotations, err := client.DetectTexts(ctx, image, nil, 10)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	if len(annotations) == 0 {
		fmt.Fprintln(w, "No text found.")
	} else {
		fmt.Fprintln(w, "Text:")
		for _, annotation := range annotations {
			fmt.Fprintf(w, "%q\n", annotation.Description)
		}
	}

	return nil
}

Java

Before trying this sample, follow the Java setup instructions in the Vision API Quickstart Using Client Libraries. For more information, see the Vision API Java reference documentation.


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.Image;
import com.google.cloud.vision.v1.ImageAnnotatorClient;
import com.google.protobuf.ByteString;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class DetectText {
  public static void detectText() throws IOException {
    // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample.
    String filePath = "path/to/your/image/file.jpg";
    detectText(filePath);
  }

  // Detects text in the specified image.
  public static void detectText(String filePath) throws IOException {
    List<AnnotateImageRequest> requests = new ArrayList<>();

    ByteString imgBytes = ByteString.readFrom(new FileInputStream(filePath));

    Image img = Image.newBuilder().setContent(imgBytes).build();
    Feature feat = Feature.newBuilder().setType(Feature.Type.TEXT_DETECTION).build();
    AnnotateImageRequest request =
        AnnotateImageRequest.newBuilder().addFeatures(feat).setImage(img).build();
    requests.add(request);

    // 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 client = ImageAnnotatorClient.create()) {
      BatchAnnotateImagesResponse response = client.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 full list of available annotations, see http://g.co/cloud/vision/docs
        for (EntityAnnotation annotation : res.getTextAnnotationsList()) {
          System.out.format("Text: %s%n", annotation.getDescription());
          System.out.format("Position : %s%n", annotation.getBoundingPoly());
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

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. 

const vision = require('@google-cloud/vision');

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

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment the following line before running the sample.
 */
// const fileName = 'Local image file, e.g. /path/to/image.png';

// Performs text detection on the local file
const [result] = await client.textDetection(fileName);
const detections = result.textAnnotations;
console.log('Text:');
detections.forEach(text => console.log(text));

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. 

def detect_text(path):
    """Detects text in the file."""
    from google.cloud import vision

    client = vision.ImageAnnotatorClient()

    with open(path, "rb") as image_file:
        content = image_file.read()

    image = vision.Image(content=content)

    response = client.text_detection(image=image)
    texts = response.text_annotations
    print("Texts:")

    for text in texts:
        print(f'\n"{text.description}"')

        vertices = [
            f"({vertex.x},{vertex.y})" for vertex in text.bounding_poly.vertices
        ]

        print("bounds: {}".format(",".join(vertices)))

    if response.error.message:
        raise Exception(
            "{}\nFor more info on error messages, check: "
            "https://cloud.google.com/apis/design/errors".format(response.error.message)
        )

Additional languages

C#: Please follow the C# setup instructions on the client libraries page and then visit the Vision reference documentation for .NET.

PHP: Please follow the PHP setup instructions on the client libraries page and then visit the Vision reference documentation for PHP.

Ruby: Please follow the Ruby setup instructions on the client libraries page and then visit the Vision reference documentation for Ruby.

Detect text in a remote image

You can use the Vision API to perform feature detection on a remote image file that is located in Cloud Storage or on the Web. To send a remote file request, specify the file's Web URL or Cloud Storage URI in the request body.

gcloud

To perform text detection, use the gcloud ml vision detect-text command as shown in the following example:

gcloud ml vision detect-text gs://cloud-samples-data/vision/ocr/sign.jpg

REST

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

  • CLOUD_STORAGE_IMAGE_URI: the path to a valid image file in a Cloud Storage bucket. You must at least have read privileges to the file. Example: 
    • gs://cloud-samples-data/vision/ocr/sign.jpg
  • PROJECT_ID: Your Google Cloud project ID.

HTTP method and URL: 

POST https://vision.googleapis.com/v1/images:annotate

Request JSON body: 

{
  "requests": [
    {
      "image": {
        "source": {
          "imageUri": "CLOUD_STORAGE_IMAGE_URI"
        }
       },
       "features": [
         {
           "type": "TEXT_DETECTION"
         }
       ]
    }
  ]
}

To send your request, choose one of these options:

curl

Save the request body in a file named request.json, and execute the following command: 

curl -X POST \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "x-goog-user-project: PROJECT_ID" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
     -d @request.json \
     "https://vision.googleapis.com/v1/images:annotate"

PowerShell

Save the request body in a file named request.json, and execute the following command: 

$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred"; "x-goog-user-project" = "PROJECT_ID" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method POST `
    -Headers $headers `
    -ContentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8" `
    -InFile request.json `
    -Uri "https://vision.googleapis.com/v1/images:annotate" | Select-Object -Expand Content

If the request is successful, the server returns a 200 OK HTTP status code and the response in JSON format.

A TEXT_DETECTION response includes the detected phrase, its bounding box, and individual words and their bounding boxes.

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. 


// detectText gets text from the Vision API for an image at the given file path.
func detectTextURI(w io.Writer, file string) error {
	ctx := context.Background()

	client, err := vision.NewImageAnnotatorClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	image := vision.NewImageFromURI(file)
	annotations, err := client.DetectTexts(ctx, image, nil, 10)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	if len(annotations) == 0 {
		fmt.Fprintln(w, "No text found.")
	} else {
		fmt.Fprintln(w, "Text:")
		for _, annotation := range annotations {
			fmt.Fprintf(w, "%q\n", annotation.Description)
		}
	}

	return nil
}

Java

Before trying this sample, follow the Java setup instructions in the Vision API Quickstart Using Client Libraries. For more information, see the Vision API Java reference documentation.


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.Image;
import com.google.cloud.vision.v1.ImageAnnotatorClient;
import com.google.cloud.vision.v1.ImageSource;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class DetectTextGcs {

  public static void detectTextGcs() throws IOException {
    // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample.
    String filePath = "gs://your-gcs-bucket/path/to/image/file.jpg";
    detectTextGcs(filePath);
  }

  // Detects text in the specified remote image on Google Cloud Storage.
  public static void detectTextGcs(String gcsPath) throws IOException {
    List<AnnotateImageRequest> requests = new ArrayList<>();

    ImageSource imgSource = ImageSource.newBuilder().setGcsImageUri(gcsPath).build();
    Image img = Image.newBuilder().setSource(imgSource).build();
    Feature feat = Feature.newBuilder().setType(Feature.Type.TEXT_DETECTION).build();
    AnnotateImageRequest request =
        AnnotateImageRequest.newBuilder().addFeatures(feat).setImage(img).build();
    requests.add(request);

    // 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 client = ImageAnnotatorClient.create()) {
      BatchAnnotateImagesResponse response = client.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 full list of available annotations, see http://g.co/cloud/vision/docs
        for (EntityAnnotation annotation : res.getTextAnnotationsList()) {
          System.out.format("Text: %s%n", annotation.getDescription());
          System.out.format("Position : %s%n", annotation.getBoundingPoly());
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

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. 

// Imports the Google Cloud client libraries
const vision = require('@google-cloud/vision');

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

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment the following lines before running the sample.
 */
// const bucketName = 'Bucket where the file resides, e.g. my-bucket';
// const fileName = 'Path to file within bucket, e.g. path/to/image.png';

// Performs text detection on the gcs file
const [result] = await client.textDetection(`gs://${bucketName}/${fileName}`);
const detections = result.textAnnotations;
console.log('Text:');
detections.forEach(text => console.log(text));

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. 

def detect_text_uri(uri):
    """Detects text in the file located in Google Cloud Storage or on the Web."""
    from google.cloud import vision

    client = vision.ImageAnnotatorClient()
    image = vision.Image()
    image.source.image_uri = uri

    response = client.text_detection(image=image)
    texts = response.text_annotations
    print("Texts:")

    for text in texts:
        print(f'\n"{text.description}"')

        vertices = [
            f"({vertex.x},{vertex.y})" for vertex in text.bounding_poly.vertices
        ]

        print("bounds: {}".format(",".join(vertices)))

    if response.error.message:
        raise Exception(
            "{}\nFor more info on error messages, check: "
            "https://cloud.google.com/apis/design/errors".format(response.error.message)
        )

Additional languages

C#: Please follow the C# setup instructions on the client libraries page and then visit the Vision reference documentation for .NET.

PHP: Please follow the PHP setup instructions on the client libraries page and then visit the Vision reference documentation for PHP.

Ruby: Please follow the Ruby setup instructions on the client libraries page and then visit the Vision reference documentation for Ruby.

Specify the language (optional)

Both types of OCR requests support one or more languageHints that specify the language of any text in the image. However, an empty value usually yields the best results, because omitting a value enables automatic language detection. For languages based on the Latin alphabet, setting languageHints is not needed. In rare cases, when the language of the text in the image is known, setting a hint helps get better results (although it can be a significant hindrance if the hint is wrong). Text detection returns an error if one or more of the specified languages is not one of the supported languages.

If you choose to provide a language hint, modify the body of your request (request.json file) to provide the string of one of the supported languages in the imageContext.languageHints field as shown in the following sample: 

{
  "requests": [
    {
      "image": {
        "source": {
          "imageUri": "IMAGE_URL"
        }
      },
      "features": [
        {
          "type": "DOCUMENT_TEXT_DETECTION"
        }
      ],
      "imageContext": {
        "languageHints": ["en-t-i0-handwrit"]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Multi-regional support

You can now specify continent-level data storage and OCR processing. The following regions are currently supported:

  • us: USA country only
  • eu: The European Union

Locations

Cloud Vision offers you some control over where the resources for your project are stored and processed. In particular, you can configure Cloud Vision to store and process your data only in the European Union.

By default Cloud Vision stores and processes resources in a Global location, which means that Cloud Vision doesn't guarantee that your resources will remain within a particular location or region. If you choose the European Union location, Google will store your data and process it only in the European Union. You and your users can access the data from any location.

Setting the location using the API

The Vision API supports a global API endpoint (vision.googleapis.com) and also two region-based endpoints: a European Union endpoint (eu-vision.googleapis.com) and United States endpoint (us-vision.googleapis.com). Use these endpoints for region-specific processing. For example, to store and process your data in the European Union only, use the URI eu-vision.googleapis.com in place of vision.googleapis.com for your REST API calls:

  • https://eu-vision.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/eu/images:annotate
  • https://eu-vision.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/eu/images:asyncBatchAnnotate
  • https://eu-vision.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/eu/files:annotate
  • https://eu-vision.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/eu/files:asyncBatchAnnotate

To store and process your data in the United States only, use the US endpoint (us-vision.googleapis.com) with the preceding methods.

Setting the location using the client libraries

The Vision API client libraries accesses the global API endpoint (vision.googleapis.com) by default. To store and process your data in the European Union only, you need to explicitly set the endpoint (eu-vision.googleapis.com). The following code samples show how to configure this setting.

REST

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

  • REGION_ID: One of the valid regional location identifiers:
    • us: USA country only
    • eu: The European Union
  • CLOUD_STORAGE_IMAGE_URI: the path to a valid image file in a Cloud Storage bucket. You must at least have read privileges to the file. Example: 
    • gs://cloud-samples-data/vision/ocr/sign.jpg
  • PROJECT_ID: Your Google Cloud project ID.

HTTP method and URL: 

POST https://REGION_ID-vision.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/REGION_ID/images:annotate

Request JSON body: 

{
  "requests": [
    {
      "image": {
        "source": {
          "imageUri": "CLOUD_STORAGE_IMAGE_URI"
        }
       },
       "features": [
         {
           "type": "TEXT_DETECTION"
         }
       ]
    }
  ]
}

To send your request, choose one of these options:

curl

Save the request body in a file named request.json, and execute the following command: 

curl -X POST \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "x-goog-user-project: PROJECT_ID" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
     -d @request.json \
     "https://REGION_ID-vision.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/REGION_ID/images:annotate"

PowerShell

Save the request body in a file named request.json, and execute the following command: 

$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred"; "x-goog-user-project" = "PROJECT_ID" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method POST `
    -Headers $headers `
    -ContentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8" `
    -InFile request.json `
    -Uri "https://REGION_ID-vision.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/REGION_ID/images:annotate" | Select-Object -Expand Content

If the request is successful, the server returns a 200 OK HTTP status code and the response in JSON format.

A TEXT_DETECTION response includes the detected phrase, its bounding box, and individual words and their bounding boxes.

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. 

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"

	vision "cloud.google.com/go/vision/apiv1"
	"google.golang.org/api/option"
)

// setEndpoint changes your endpoint.
func setEndpoint(endpoint string) error {
	// endpoint := "eu-vision.googleapis.com:443"

	ctx := context.Background()
	client, err := vision.NewImageAnnotatorClient(ctx, option.WithEndpoint(endpoint))
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("NewImageAnnotatorClient: %w", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	return nil
}

Java

Before trying this sample, follow the Java setup instructions in the Vision API Quickstart Using Client Libraries. For more information, see the Vision API Java reference documentation.

ImageAnnotatorSettings settings =
    ImageAnnotatorSettings.newBuilder().setEndpoint("eu-vision.googleapis.com:443").build();

// 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.
ImageAnnotatorClient client = ImageAnnotatorClient.create(settings);

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. 

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

async function setEndpoint() {
  // Specifies the location of the api endpoint
  const clientOptions = {apiEndpoint: 'eu-vision.googleapis.com'};

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

  // Performs text detection on the image file
  const [result] = await client.textDetection('./resources/wakeupcat.jpg');
  const labels = result.textAnnotations;
  console.log('Text:');
  labels.forEach(label => console.log(label.description));
}
setEndpoint();

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. 

from google.cloud import vision

client_options = {"api_endpoint": "eu-vision.googleapis.com"}

client = vision.ImageAnnotatorClient(client_options=client_options)

Try it

Try text detection and document text detection below. You can use the image specified already (gs://cloud-samples-data/vision/ocr/sign.jpg) by clicking Execute, or you can specify your own image in its place.

To try document text detection, update the value of type to DOCUMENT_TEXT_DETECTION.

Road sign image

Request body:

{
  "requests": [
    {
      "features": [
        {
          "type": "TEXT_DETECTION"
        }
      ],
      "image": {
        "source": {
          "imageUri": "gs://cloud-samples-data/vision/ocr/sign.jpg"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}