[New Plugin] - Free OCR - Extract text from your PDF's, JPG's or PNG's

Either provide your PDF, JPG or PNG’s URL or store it in your database and retrieve its URL. The server will respond with the text read from the sent items for you insert into input fields, databases or even maybe a screen reader!
You will need to grab an API key from here - Free OCR API

Simple mode - text as a block - (isOverlayRequired set to false)

Slightly more advanced - text as words, line numbers, X/Y coordinates and more! - (isOverlayRequired set to true)

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Wow~! You’re awesome for sharing

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UPDATE:

I have just updated the API call, after months of work they have now added get a searchable PDF returned from your OCR Request.

** PDF has OCR.Space on it for free api key’s.
** the returned link to your PDF is valid for 1hr.

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This might be a silly question but would this be able to search a PDF file, say a pricelist.
My intention would be to have an app that sends an order when stock is depleted then when the order is collected and an invoice emailed to me from my supplier. I would load it in the app and the app would read the invoice. The item number, number of that item supplied and the cost would be read. The app would then update the stock levels and check the prices against previously stored prices.
I’m a newb so I’m asking whether this seams feeasible and what sort of work would be involved. If it was highly complicated would anyone have an idea of cost to have it coded for me.

yer that’s pretty much inline with what you could achieve with this. if your prepared to get the bubble basics sorted you could make this app happen. there are plenty of people on the forum that are willing to help out if you get stuck.

Hi @jarrad,
setup works fine for me so far although I do not get any reasonable result so far…
Issue 1: I get back OCRExitCode = 0 although in the documentation 0 does not exist…Only 1-4 so I cannot tell what is going wrong
Issue 2: I do not get back any text (neither as block nor as single words). I also added a working hard coded URL as parameter to rule out that the dynamic URL finding is not working. The same image on the Web API on https://ocr.space/ocrapi works

Would be great to get some help here! Thanks in advance!!

They are usually pretty good with notice of any changes, I have pushed an update, It now includes OCR via either a URL or Base64 of an image. If you require OCR of anything customized or need some logic before return Documental may be able to help.

Thank you for your quick response!!
I see you also changed the input for the apikey…Still now I do not get any feedback from the API anymore…Not even the OCRExitCode.

I do not need anyting specific or customized…basically the funtionality provided is enough…Still I can’t figure out how to make it workfrom within bubble using your PlugIn

try your logic with the default url that is prefilled, leaving the base64 empty and see what you get. if you get nothing its your logic - assuming you have refreshed then updated the plugin.

I am using your latest version 1.1.1 and whether I am using a dynamic or static URL I cannot get any result unfortunatly

image

image

Pasting the URL here works fine

The plugin is returning just fine.

Did you try the default url that is in the properties to start with? This is a question to help diagnose your issue.

The other difference is https://ocr.space/ does not require a key but the plugin does, so have you verified your key is correct from the key supplied by https://ocr.space/?

Default URL works fine (“GAVE AWAY MY BOOK
FREE ON
REACHED TOP OF AMAZON
BESTSELLER”

Difference I can see is that it is PNG and I am using JPGs and it is http whereas the AWS saved images are https…Here is my example URL

as soon as I replace it it won’t work. Thanks for your support!! I really appreciate it

Here is a .jpg, using a https bubble aws link,

Make sure your using https, in one image you show the link without the protocol & another with http…

The only other thing i can suggest is its a privacy rule - I have tested the plugin in the builder & 2 very different apps and they all work 100% so this must be within your app.

Hello @jarrad
I guess I found the issue(s)

  1. when retrieving images from AWS the type should be set explicitly due to the fact that the default filetype in AWS is Content-Type:application/x-www-form-urlencoded

Tip: When serving images from an Amazon AWS S3 bucket or a similar service for use with the “URL” parameter, make sure it has the right content type. It should not be “Content-Type:application/x-www-form-urlencoded” (which seems to be the default) but image/png or similar. Alternatively you can include the filetype parameter and tell the API directly what type of document you are sending (PNG, JPG, GIF, PDF).

  1. the filesize (at least for API calls) seemes to be limited to 1024k…That’s why my above example image did not works

I made step-by-step reproduction with the API Connector…Thats what I found…At least I get my results now (unfortunatly not for camera photos that is why it is useless for me :frowning:

Thanks for your support!

Interesting, I dont have any issue with aws links minus the content-type, in my experience this is more once a file gets over the 5mb size. In fact your the first one to have an issue with the plugin since it was made (excluding api changes I adjusted for a while back). Im wondering why this didnt help you sort it sooner,

image

and the file size is limited, as stated at the very top of the document your quoting above… downside to free i guess.

Hi @jarrad,

How do I get to textOverlayLines? Do I have to toggle / enable some setting to see it in the menu? In my drop down, i’m only seeing this:

Thank you!

I am stuck, having installed the api now I dont know from where to start.

I enabled the api workflow from settings and want to read text in pictures that i am uploading through a form.

Can someone help me with that.

Sometimes it is stuck or crashes when I am using it… Can you try OCR software like Deli OCR Text Recognition? It is also using the algorithms to extract text from PDF, JPG or Screenshot too. Just personal recommendation!

I recommend using Klippa OCR.

Hey @lawrencekong1998 !

Alternatively you can try out this plugin AWS Textract - OCR Text & Data, hope that helps.