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FIU Digital Project Guidelines and Help Materials

The internal standard operating procedures for FIU Libraries' digital collections

Tesseract

Tesseract is a free and open-source Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software maintained by Google. It converts scanned images, PDFs, and other image-based files into editable and searchable text formats. Tesseract is particularly popular among researchers and developers due to its flexibility, robust language support, and compatibility with command-line workflows.

While Tesseract operates primarily via the command line, its capabilities can be extended using scripting languages like Python. This makes it a powerful tool for processing text in digitization projects, creating accessible documents, and extracting data from image-based content.

Tesseract is available for download and installation on Windows, macOS, and Linux systems. It is also installed on computers in the Digital Collections Center and Digital Scholar Studio. Training sessions can be arranged if you are new to the software or need guidance.

Why choose Tesseract for your project?

Strengths

  • Free and Open-Source: Tesseract is completely free to use, making it accessible to anyone, regardless of budget constraints.

  • Wide Language Support: Recognizes over 100 languages and allows for multilingual OCR in a single document.

  • Highly Customizable: Users can fine-tune OCR accuracy through configuration files and custom training.

  • Scriptable and Automatable: Ideal for batch processing large volumes of documents using scripts and integration with programming languages like Python.

  • Lightweight and Efficient: Runs on modest hardware, making it suitable for users with limited computing resources.

  • Active Development: Regular updates ensure compatibility with modern workflows and improvements in OCR accuracy.

Limitations

  • Command-Line Interface: Tesseract lacks a graphical user interface (GUI), which may make it challenging for users unfamiliar with command-line tools.

  • Preprocessing Required: Often requires image preprocessing (e.g., enhancing contrast, deskewing) to achieve optimal results.

  • Limited Formatting Preservation: Does not always retain the original layout, fonts, or formatting of the document, focusing more on raw text extraction.

  • No Built-In Batch Processing: Users must rely on external scripts or tools to process multiple files simultaneously.

  • Learning Curve: While powerful, Tesseract can be intimidating for users without experience in programming or command-line workflows.