How to Extract Text from Images Using PHP and Tesseract OCR

PHP is a popular programming language with powerful capabilities, and this guide shows how to use PHP to extract text from images.

First, install an OCR library using Composer; the example uses the Tesseract OCR library. Include it in your script:

require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';
use thiagoalessio\TesseractOCR\TesseractOCR;

Specify the path to the image you want to process:

$imagePath = 'path/to/your/image.jpg';

Create a TesseractOCR instance with the image path:

$ocr = new TesseractOCR($imagePath);

Run the OCR to obtain the extracted text:

$text = $ocr->run();

Output the result to the screen:

echo $text;

The complete example combines all steps:

require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';
use thiagoalessio\TesseractOCR\TesseractOCR;

// Specify image path
$imagePath = 'path/to/your/image.jpg';

// Create OCR instance
$ocr = new TesseractOCR($imagePath);

// Run OCR and get text
$text = $ocr->run();

// Output extracted text
echo $text;

These steps provide a simple foundation for extracting text from images with PHP, which you can extend or modify as needed.