Project Documentation: https://5mbl.github.io/proconverter-docs/docs/start/

1. Clone the Repository:

   git clone https://github.com/5mbl/ocr-backend.git

2. Install Dependencies:

• Pytesseract: ¹

  • Download and install tesseract-ocr-w64-setup-5.3.3.20231005.exe.

  • After installation, locate the installed directory (e.g., C:\Program Files (x86)\Tesseract-OCR).

  • Download the German training data file from here.

  • Copy the downloaded file into the "tessdata" directory within the installed Tesseract directory (e.g., C:\Program Files (x86)\Tesseract-OCR\tessdata).

  • Specifying tesseract.exe Path in Code:

    # app.py (line 35)
    
    #pytesseract for OCR
    pytesseract.pytesseract.tesseract_cmd = r'C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR\tesseract.exe'

• Poppler: ²

  • Go to Poppler Windows Releases.

  • Under Release 23.11.0-0 Latest v23.11.0-0, navigate to Assets 3

  • Download Release-23.11.0-0.zip.

  • Extract the downloaded zip file.

  • Add the extracted Poppler folder to a location such as: C:\Users\UserName\Downloads\Release-23.11.0-0.

  • Add the path C:\Users\UserName\Downloads\Release-21.11.0-0 to the system variable Path in the Environment Variables.

  • Specifying Poppler Path in Code:

    # app.py (line 38)
    
    # poppler for pdf2img
    poppler_path = r"C:\poppler-23.11.0\Library\bin"

• Activating the virtual enviroment:

  • Terminal: python -m venv myenv

• Install requirements.txt:

  • pip install -r requirements.txt

• Start the Application

  • flask run

¹ https://smartextract.ai/pytesseract/

² https://stackoverflow.com/questions/53481088/poppler-in-path-for-pdf2image