C#.net - Read Text from Image in C#.net

In this article i will show you how to read text from image by using OCR Components in C#.net.


What is OCR?
OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is the recognition of printed or written text characters by a computer. This involves photoscanning of the text character-by-character, analysis of the scanned-in image, and then translation of the character image into character codes, such as ASCII, commonly used in data processing.


OCR translates images of text, such as scanned documents, into actual text characters. Also known as text recognition, OCR makes it possible to edit and reuse the text that is normally locked inside scanned images. OCRworks using a form of artificial intelligence known as pattern recognition, to identify individual text characters on a page, including punctuation marks, spaces, and ends of lines.


First off, you need to have MS Office 2007 installed or later version. This is obviously a dependency if you develop an application to use the OCR capabilites in the field – it won’t work without Office installed. Furthermore, the OCRcapability doesn’t install by default when you install Office, you need to add a component called ‘Microsoft Office Document Imaging’ (MODI).


Instructions on how to add the required MODI component.


Step 1
Click Start, click Run, type appwiz.cpl in the Open box, and then click OK.


Step 2
Click to select the Office 2007 version that you have installed.


Step 3
Click Change.


Step 4
Click Add or Remove Features, and then click Continue.


Step 5
Expand Office Tools.

Click on Image for better View.


Step 6
Click Microsoft Office Document Imaging, and then click Run all from My Computer.

Click on Image for better View.


Step 7
Click Continue.


Now MODI Components installed on your Machine.lets create OCR Application in Visual Stdio.


Step 8
Create a Console Application and give the solution name as SolReadTextFromImage.


Step 9
Copy a Sample image file in Application BaseDirectory.(./bin/debug/SampleImage.JPG)

Click on Image for better View.


Step 10
Add a MODI Reference in our application.so we can use in our application for reading text from image.Right Click on project in Solution Explorer.right click onReferences,select the COM tab,then select Microsoft Office Document Imaging 12.0 Type Library.  

Click on Image for better View.


Step 11
The Code below will read text from image and store in text file,it is look like this

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1. #region Methods  
2.   
3.         /// <summary>  
4.         ///  Read Text from Image and display in console App  
5.         /// </summary>  
6.         /// <param name="ImagePath">specify the Image Path</param>  
7.         private static void ReadTextFromImage(String ImagePath)  
8.         {  
9.             try  
10.             {  
11.                 // Grab Text From Image  
12.                 MODI.Document ModiObj = new MODI.Document();  
13.                 ModiObj.Create(ImagePath);  
14.                 ModiObj.OCR(MODI.MiLANGUAGES.miLANG_ENGLISH, true, true);  
15.   
16.                 //Retrieve the text gathered from the image  
17.                 MODI.Image ModiImageObj = (MODI.Image)ModiObj.Images[0];  
18.                   
19.   
20.                 System.Console.WriteLine(ModiImageObj.Layout.Text);  
21.   
22.                 ModiObj.Close();  
23.             }  
24.             catch (Exception ex)  
25.             {  
26.                 throw new Exception(ex.Message);  
27.             }  
28.         }  
29.   
30.         /// <summary>  
31.         ///  Read Text from Image and Store in Text File  
32.         /// </summary>  
33.         /// <param name="ImagePath">specify the Image Path</param>  
34.         /// <param name="StoreTextFilePath">Specify the Store Text File</param>  
35.         private static void ReadTextFromImage(String ImagePath, String StoreTextFilePath)  
36.         {  
37.             try  
38.             {  
39.                 // Grab Text From Image  
40.                 MODI.Document ModiObj = new MODI.Document();  
41.                 ModiObj.Create(ImagePath);  
42.                 ModiObj.OCR(MODI.MiLANGUAGES.miLANG_ENGLISH, true, true);  
43.   
44.                 //Retrieve the text gathered from the image  
45.                 MODI.Image ModiImageObj = (MODI.Image)ModiObj.Images[0];  
46.                  
47.   
48.                 // Store Image Content in Text File  
49.                 FileStream CreateFileObj = new FileStream(StoreTextFilePath, FileMode.Create);  
50.                 //save the image text in the text file   
51.                 StreamWriter WriteFileObj = new StreamWriter(CreateFileObj);  
52.                 WriteFileObj.Write(ModiImageObj.Layout.Text);  
53.                 WriteFileObj.Close();  
54.   
55.                 ModiObj.Close();  
56.             }  
57.             catch (Exception ex)  
58.             {  
59.                 throw new Exception(ex.Message);   
60.             }  
61.         }  
62.  
63.         #endregion  
64.   
65.           

Step 12
Call both methods in main function,it is look like this

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1. static void Main(string[] args)  
2.         {  
3.             // Set Sample Image Path  
4.             String ImagePath = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + "SampleImage.jpg";  
5.   
6.             ReadTextFromImage(ImagePath);  
7.   
8.             // Set Store Image Content text file Path  
9.             String StoreTextFilePath = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + "SampleText.txt";  
10.   
11.             ReadTextFromImage(ImagePath, StoreTextFilePath);  
12.         }  

Full Code

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1. using System;  
2. using System.Collections.Generic;  
3. using System.Linq;  
4. using System.Text;  
5. using System.IO;  
6.   
7.   
8. namespace SolReadTextFromImage  
9. {  
10.     class Program  
11.     {  
12.         static void Main(string[] args)  
13.         {  
14.             // Set Sample Image Path  
15.             String ImagePath = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + "SampleImage.jpg";  
16.   
17.             ReadTextFromImage(ImagePath);  
18.   
19.             // Set Store Image Content text file Path  
20.             String StoreTextFilePath = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + "SampleText.txt";  
21.   
22.             ReadTextFromImage(ImagePath, StoreTextFilePath);  
23.         }  
24.  
25.         #region Methods  
26.   
27.         /// <summary>  
28.         ///  Read Text from Image and display in console App  
29.         /// </summary>  
30.         /// <param name="ImagePath">specify the Image Path</param>  
31.         private static void ReadTextFromImage(String ImagePath)  
32.         {  
33.             try  
34.             {  
35.                 // Grab Text From Image  
36.                 MODI.Document ModiObj = new MODI.Document();  
37.                 ModiObj.Create(ImagePath);  
38.                 ModiObj.OCR(MODI.MiLANGUAGES.miLANG_ENGLISH, true, true);  
39.   
40.                 //Retrieve the text gathered from the image  
41.                 MODI.Image ModiImageObj = (MODI.Image)ModiObj.Images[0];  
42.                  
43.   
44.                 System.Console.WriteLine(ModiImageObj.Layout.Text);  
45.   
46.                 ModiObj.Close(false);  
47.             }  
48.             catch (Exception ex)  
49.             {  
50.                 throw new Exception(ex.Message);  
51.             }  
52.         }  
53.   
54.         /// <summary>  
55.         ///  Read Text from Image and Store in Text File  
56.         /// </summary>  
57.         /// <param name="ImagePath">specify the Image Path</param>  
58.         /// <param name="StoreTextFilePath">Specify the Store Text File</param>  
59.         private static void ReadTextFromImage(String ImagePath, String StoreTextFilePath)  
60.         {  
61.             try  
62.             {  
63.                 // Grab Text From Image  
64.                 MODI.Document ModiObj = new MODI.Document();  
65.                 ModiObj.Create(ImagePath);  
66.                 ModiObj.OCR(MODI.MiLANGUAGES.miLANG_ENGLISH, true, true);  
67.   
68.                 //Retrieve the text gathered from the image  
69.                 MODI.Image ModiImageObj = (MODI.Image)ModiObj.Images[0];  
70.                  
71.   
72.                 // Store Image Content in Text File  
73.                 FileStream CreateFileObj = new FileStream(StoreTextFilePath, FileMode.Create);  
74.                 //save the image text in the text file   
75.                 StreamWriter WriteFileObj = new StreamWriter(CreateFileObj);  
76.                 WriteFileObj.Write(ModiImageObj.Layout.Text);  
77.                 WriteFileObj.Close();  
78.   
79.                 ModiObj.Close(false);  
80.             }  
81.             catch (Exception ex)  
82.             {  
83.                 throw new Exception(ex.Message);   
84.             }  
85.         }  
86.  
87.         #endregion  
88.     }  
89. }  

Output

Click on Image for better View.


Download
Download source Code

Steps by Step for XBAP Application Deployment

Introduction

In this article, I have describe, how to deploy the XBAP Application. Here I have given every steps screen shot and detail of the necessary parameters.

The following are the steps for deploying the XBAP samples.

Step 1. VIRTUAL DIRECTORY CREATION IN IIS

Create a Virtual Directory in local machine with local path. Please use the following steps to do this.

I. Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. (Start -> Run -> inetmgr.exe).
II. Navigate to (Machine name -> Sites -> Default Web Sites).
III. Right click on “Default Web Sites” and select “Add Application option”. 

IV. It will open “Add Application” dialog box. From this dialog box, please enter the “Alias” and “Physical Path”. Then Click OK button. 

V. It will create a “Virtual directory” with the name of “Sample” to the physical path of “E:\Work\SourceCode\Version\Project\Control”.

Step 2. WORKING SAMPLE APPLICATION WITH VS IDE

We should always work with Admin mode for deploying the XBAP application since we don’t have rights to access IIS in non-admin mode. Open VS IDE in Admin mode. 

Step 3. DEPLOYING SAMPLE APPLICATION

I. Open the solution file.

II. Do necessary changes in the application and build it.

III. Once the build get succeeded then open the properties of “Sample” application.

IV. From the properties window, go to Signing tab and make sure that “Sign the ClickOnce manifests” check box is checked. If not, select the certificate key from the Certificate storage. 

V. Then navigate to “Security” tab and make sure that “This is a full trust application” radio button is in checked condition. Normally XBAP applications are run within a security sandbox to prevent untrusted applications from controlling local system resources. (E.g. deleting local files). In order to access local file system, port access, bitmap effects, etc., you need to run your application in “Full trust” mode. 

VI. After that, select “Publish” tab and enter the publish location (Both local path and internet path where we would like to Run the application) and publish version information. 

VII. Before that, make sure that the files needed to include with the application along with the published folder. This can be achieved with help of “Application Files” dialog by clicking the “Application Files” button. 

VIII. We need to mention the “Prerequisites” to run our application. This will be provided by using “Prerequisites” dialog. 

IX. Then provide the publishing details which will be shown in the main “index.htm” page. 

X. Once you complete all above steps, please use publish wizard and publish the sample application.

Step 4. DEPLOYING AN APPLICATION TO THE REMOTE SERVER

 I. Since we already given the internet URL while publishing the project application, we need to create a sample virtual directory in “Remote server’s IIS”. It will make URL available over the internet.

II. Then place the sample application’s (XBAP application) files and folder from local machine to the remote server.

‘System.Net.WebPermission, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' failed

In WPF browser application follow given steps to give full trust permission

1. Select project

2. Right click and select properties.

3. Select security tab from left panel.

4. Now select/ check the radio button that says " This is full trust application"

5. Save and run application.

This will solve ur problem of permission on System.Net.WebPermission.

WCF Service Hosting :: How to Use Dataset Across 

WCF Service

Some times you need to return a set of data from a WCF service and When you are working with ado.net, dataset is the obvious reason you wish at your client side. But passing dataset can make service less interoportable because in that case you are forced to use dataset on your client code. Second point is that dataset might become very bulky as per size of the data grows. Instead, passing dataset we can pass compressed byte array of dataset from WCF service and consume it like a byte array on client end. After Uncompression, either you can convert it into dataset or you can use this XML in any other form you want.

For this, lets first create a WCF service:

[OperationContract]
public byte[] GetEmployee(string BranchId)
{
string sQ = "Select EmpId, EmployeeName from EmployeeMaster";

SqlConnection objConn = new SqlConnection("Data Source=[YourServer];Initial Catalog=[Database];User ID=[UserName];Password=[Password];MultipleActiveResultSets=True");
SqlCommand objCom = new SqlCommand(sQ, objConn);
SqlDataAdapter objDa = new SqlDataAdapter(objCom);
DataSet objDs = new DataSet();
objDa.Fill(objDs);
//Now we'll convert dataset into byte array and compress it using gzStream.
byte[] binaryDataResult = null;
MemoryStream memStream = new MemoryStream();
GZipStream gzStream = new GZipStream(memStream, CompressionMode.Compress);
objDs.WriteXml(gzStream);
binaryDataResult = memStream.ToArray();
gzStream.Close();
memStream.Close();
return binaryDataResult;
}

Here, We are first filling dataset from database then after compression using GZipStream, we are converting it to byte array. At client end we will get this byte array and we’ll again follow these steps in reverse order.

ServiceClient s = new ServiceClient();
byte[] btEmployee = (byte[])s.GetEmployee("0");
if (btEmployee != null)
{
MemoryStream mEmployee = new MemoryStream(btEmployee);
GZipStream gStreamEmployee = new GZipStream(mEmployee, CompressionMode.Decompress);
DataSet objDsEmployee = new DataSet();
objDsEmployee.ReadXml(gStreamEmployee);
gStreamEmployee.Close();
gvEmployee.DataSource = objDsEmployee;
gvEmployee.DataBind();
}