OCR Image Text Extraction Skill
ocr
Extract text from images using Tesseract OCR
SKILL.md
Full skill instructions
OCR Image Text Extraction Skill
Extract text from images using Tesseract OCR engine.
Capabilities
- Extract text from image files (PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF)
- Support for 100+ languages
- Optional image preprocessing for better accuracy
- Output in plain text or JSON format with confidence scores
Usage
Basic OCR
python3 scripts/ocr.py <image_file> <output_file>
With Options
# Specify language (default: eng)
python3 scripts/ocr.py image.png text.txt --lang eng
# Chinese text
python3 scripts/ocr.py image.png text.txt --lang chi_sim
# Multiple languages
python3 scripts/ocr.py image.png text.txt --lang eng+chi_sim
# With image preprocessing (improves accuracy)
python3 scripts/ocr.py image.png text.txt --preprocess
# JSON output with confidence scores
python3 scripts/ocr.py image.png output.json --format json
Download and OCR from URL
# OCR from remote image
python3 scripts/ocr_url.py <image_url> <output_file>
# With options
python3 scripts/ocr_url.py https://example.com/image.jpg text.txt --lang eng --preprocess
Parameters
image_file/image_url(required): Path to local image or image URLoutput_file(required): Path to output text/JSON file--lang: Language code (e.g., eng, chi_sim, jpn, fra, deu). Default: eng--preprocess: Apply image preprocessing (grayscale, thresholding) for better accuracy--format: Output format (text/json, default: text)
Common Languages
| Language | Code |
|---|---|
| English | eng |
| Chinese (Simplified) | chi_sim |
| Chinese (Traditional) | chi_tra |
| Japanese | jpn |
| Korean | kor |
| French | fra |
| German | deu |
| Spanish | spa |
| Russian | rus |
| Arabic | ara |
Supported Image Formats
PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, WEBP
Dependencies
- Python 3.8+
- pytesseract
- Pillow (PIL)
- tesseract-ocr (system package)
Installation
# Python packages
pip install pytesseract Pillow
# Tesseract OCR engine
sudo apt-get install tesseract-ocr # Ubuntu/Debian
sudo yum install tesseract # CentOS/RHEL
brew install tesseract # macOS
