Minimum Code Required to OCR Files - C# .NET 6

This tutorial shows how to set up the LEAD OCR Engine with minimal code to process OCR in a C# .NET 6 Console application using the LEADTOOLS SDK.

Required Knowledge

Get familiar with the basic steps of creating a project by reviewing the Add References and Set a License tutorial, before working on the Minimum Code Required to OCR Files - C# .NET 6 tutorial.

Create the Project and Add LEADTOOLS References

Start with a copy of the project created in the Add References and Set a License tutorial. If the project is not available, follow the steps in that tutorial to create it.

The references needed depend upon the purpose of the project. References can be added via NuGet packages.

This tutorial requires the following NuGet package:

• Leadtools.Ocr

For a complete list of which DLL files are required for your application, refer to Files to be Included With Your Application.

Set the License File

The License unlocks the features needed for the project. It must be set before any toolkit function is called. For details, including tutorials for different platforms, refer to Setting a Runtime License.

There are two types of runtime licenses:

• Evaluation license, obtained at the time the evaluation toolkit is downloaded. It allows the toolkit to be evaluated.
• Deployment license. If a Deployment license file and developer key are needed, refer to Obtaining a License.

Add the OCR Code

With the project created, the references added, and the license set, coding can begin.

In the Solution Explorer, open Program.cs. Add the following statements to the using block at the top of Program.cs.

// Using block at the top 
using System; 
using System.IO; 
using Leadtools; 
using Leadtools.Document.Writer; 
using Leadtools.Ocr; 

Add a new method named OCR(string inputFile, string outputFile) to the Program class and call it inside the Main() method below SetLicense().

static void Main(string[] args) 
{ 
    InitLEAD(); 
    string input = @"C:\LEADTOOLS23\Resources\Images\OCR1.TIF"; 
    string output = @"C:\LEADTOOLS23\Resources\Images\OCR1.PDF"; 
    OCR(input, output); 
} 

Add the code below to the new method, to initialize the IOcrEngine, run OCR on the input image, and export the file to searchable PDF.

static void OCR(string inputFile, string outputFile) 
{ 
    using (IOcrEngine ocrEngine = OcrEngineManager.CreateEngine(OcrEngineType.LEAD)) 
    { 
        // Startup the LEADTOOLS OCR Engine 
        ocrEngine.Startup(null, null, null, null); 
        // Run the AutoRecognizeManager and specify PDF format 
        ocrEngine.AutoRecognizeManager.Run(inputFile, outputFile, DocumentFormat.Pdf, null, null); 
        Console.WriteLine($"OCR output saved to {outputFile}"); 
    } 
} 

Run the Project

Run the project by pressing F5, or by selecting Debug -> Start Debugging.

If the steps were followed correctly, the console appears and the application converts the input image to PDF format and saves it to the specified location (as a searchable PDF).

Wrap-up

This tutorial showed how to create a simple OCR .NET 6 Application that initializes the LEAD OCR Engine, takes a specified input file and outputs the recognition results to the specified output file in the specified format, using the minimum code required.

See Also

• LEADTOOLS IOcrEngine Documentation
• Programming with the LEADTOOLS .NET OCR
• Leadtools.Ocr Introduction
• LEADTOOLS SDK Download