OCR with Python and EasyOCR

Created: Create a basic application using EasyOCR and Flask that uses Machine Learning to Parse Text from an Image

Updated: 03 September 2023

A simple application to use EasyOCR and Flask to create a WebApp that is able to process images and return the relevant text

Requirements/Dependencies

The application has the following dependencies which should be in a requirements.txt file:

requirements.txt

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# This file is used by pip to install required python packages
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# Usage: pip install -r requirements.txt
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# Flask Framework
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flask
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easyocr

Application Code

The application configures a Flask app with the EasyOCR library and a simple HTML form with a file upload:

app.py

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import os
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from flask import Flask, flash, request, redirect, url_for, jsonify
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from werkzeug.utils import secure_filename
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import easyocr
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reader = easyocr.Reader(['en'], True)
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ALLOWED_EXTENSIONS = {'png', 'jpg', 'jpeg', 'gif'}
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FILE_DIR = 'files'
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app = Flask(__name__)
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if not os.path.exists(FILE_DIR):
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    os.makedirs(FILE_DIR)
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def allowed_file(filename):
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    return '.' in filename and \
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           filename.rsplit('.', 1)[1].lower() in ALLOWED_EXTENSIONS
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@app.route('/', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
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def upload_file():
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    if request.method == 'POST':
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        # check if the post request has the file part
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        if 'file' not in request.files:
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            flash('No file part')
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            return redirect(request.url)
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        file = request.files['file']
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        # if user does not select file, browser also
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        # submit an empty part without filename
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        if file.filename == '':
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            flash('No selected file')
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            return redirect(request.url)
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        if file and allowed_file(file.filename):
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            filename = FILE_DIR + '/' + secure_filename(file.filename)
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            file.save(filename)
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            parsed = reader.readtext(filename)
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            text = '<br/>\n'.join(map(lambda x: x[1], parsed))
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            # handle file upload
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            return (text)
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    return '''
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    <!doctype html>
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    <title>Upload new File</title>
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    <h1>Upload new File</h1>
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    <form method=post enctype=multipart/form-data>
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      <input type=file name=file>
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      <input type=submit value=Upload>
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    </form>
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    '''

Run the Application

The application can be run with the flask run command from the application directory (the directory with the app.py file)