Description

GNU Ocrad is an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) program and library
based on a feature extraction method. It reads images in png or pnm formats
and produces text in byte (8-bit) or UTF-8 formats. The formats pbm
(bitmap), pgm (greyscale), and ppm (color) are collectively known as pnm.

Ocrad includes a layout analyser able to separate the columns and blocks
of text normally found on printed pages.

For best results the characters should be at least 20 pixels high. If they
are smaller, try the option --scale. Scanning the image at 300 dpi usually
produces a character size good enough for ocrad.

See the file INSTALL for compilation and installation instructions.

Try "ocrad --help" for usage instructions.

Caveats.
Merged characters are always a problem. Try to avoid them.
Very bold or very light (broken) characters are also a problem.
Always see with your own eyes the image contained in the input file before
blaming ocrad for the results. Remember the saying, "garbage in, garbage out".

Ideas, comments, patches, donations (hardware, money, etc), etc, are welcome.

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Debug levels ( option -D )
100 - Show raw block list.
 99 - Show recursive block list.
 98 - Show main block list.
 96..97 - reserved.
 95 - Show all blocks from every character before recognition.
 94 - Show main black blocks from every character before recognition.
 90..93 - reserved.
 89 - Show all blocks from every character.
 88 - Show main black blocks from every character.
 87 - Show guess list for every character.
 86 - Show best guess for every character.
 80..85 - reserved.
 78..79 - reserved.
 7X - X = 0 Show page as bitmap.
      X = 1 Show page as bitmap with marked zones.
      X = 2 Show page as bitmap with marked lines.
      X = 4 Show page as bitmap with marked characters.

Output file types
  1..6 - pnm files P1 to P6.
  7    - png mono (greyscale 1 bit).
  8    - png greyscale 8 bit.


Copyright (C) 2003-2024 Antonio Diaz Diaz.

This file is free documentation: you have unlimited permission to copy,
distribute, and modify it.

The file Makefile.in is a data file used by configure to produce the Makefile.
It has the same copyright owner and permissions that configure itself.
