In this quickstart, you'll extract printed text with optical character recognition (OCR) from an image using the Computer Vision REST API. With the OCR method, you can detect printed text in an image and extract recognized characters into a machine-usable character stream.

• An Azure subscription - Create one for free
• Node.js 4.x or later
• npm
• Once you have your Azure subscription, create a Computer Vision resource in the Azure portal to get your key and endpoint. After it deploys, click Go to resource.
  • You will need the key and endpoint from the resource you create to connect your application to the Computer Vision service. You'll paste your key and endpoint into the code below later in the quickstart.
  • You can use the free pricing tier (F0) to try the service, and upgrade later to a paid tier for production.

To create and run the sample, do the following steps:

1. Install the npm request package.

   1. Open a command prompt window as an administrator.

   2. Run the following command:

      npm install request

   3. After the package is successfully installed, close the command prompt window.

2. Copy the following code into a text editor.

3. Replace the values of key and endpoint with your Computer Vision key and endpoint.

4. Optionally, replace the value of imageUrl with the URL of a different image from which you want to extract printed text.

5. Save the code as a file with a .js extension. For example, get-printed-text.js.

6. Open a command prompt window.

7. At the prompt, use the node command to run the file. For example, node get-printed-text.js.

'use strict';

const request = require('request');

let key = 'PASTE_YOUR_COMPUTER_VISION_KEY_HERE';
let endpoint = 'PASTE_YOUR_COMPUTER_VISION_ENDPOINT_HERE';

var uriBase = endpoint + 'vision/v3.1/ocr';

const imageUrl = 'https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/af/' +
    'Atomist_quote_from_Democritus.png/338px-Atomist_quote_from_Democritus.png';

// Request parameters.
const params = {
    'language': 'unk',
    'detectOrientation': 'true',
};

const options = {
    uri: uriBase,
    qs: params,
    body: '{"url": ' + '"' + imageUrl + '"}',
    headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key' : key
    }
};

request.post(options, (error, response, body) => {
  if (error) {
    console.log('Error: ', error);
    return;
  }
  let jsonResponse = JSON.stringify(JSON.parse(body), null, '  ');
  console.log('JSON Response\n');
  console.log(jsonResponse);
});

A successful response is returned in JSON. The sample parses and displays a successful response in the command prompt window, similar to the following example:

{
  "language": "en",
  "orientation": "Up",
  "textAngle": 0,
  "regions": [
    {
      "boundingBox": "21,16,304,451",
      "lines": [
        {
          "boundingBox": "28,16,288,41",
          "words": [
            {
              "boundingBox": "28,16,288,41",
              "text": "NOTHING"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "boundingBox": "27,66,283,52",
          "words": [
            {
              "boundingBox": "27,66,283,52",
              "text": "EXISTS"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "boundingBox": "27,128,292,49",
          "words": [
            {
              "boundingBox": "27,128,292,49",
              "text": "EXCEPT"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "boundingBox": "24,188,292,54",
          "words": [
            {
              "boundingBox": "24,188,292,54",
              "text": "ATOMS"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "boundingBox": "22,253,297,32",
          "words": [
            {
              "boundingBox": "22,253,105,32",
              "text": "AND"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": "144,253,175,32",
              "text": "EMPTY"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "boundingBox": "21,298,304,60",
          "words": [
            {
              "boundingBox": "21,298,304,60",
              "text": "SPACE."
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "boundingBox": "26,387,294,37",
          "words": [
            {
              "boundingBox": "26,387,210,37",
              "text": "Everything"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": "249,389,71,27",
              "text": "else"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "boundingBox": "127,431,198,36",
          "words": [
            {
              "boundingBox": "127,431,31,29",
              "text": "is"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": "172,431,153,36",
              "text": "opinion."
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

When no longer needed, delete the file, and then uninstall the npm request package. To uninstall the package, do the following steps:

1. Open a command prompt window as an administrator.

2. Run the following command:

   npm uninstall request

3. After the package is successfully uninstalled, close the command prompt window.

Next, explore the Computer Vision APIs used to analyze an image, detect celebrities and landmarks, create a thumbnail, and extract printed and handwritten text.

• Explore the Computer Vision API