Title: Sneak preview: OCR with OpenCV, Tesseract, and Python - PyImageSearch

URL Source: https://pyimagesearch.com/2020/08/13/sneak-preview-ocr-with-opencv-tesseract-and-python/

Published Time: 2020-08-13T14:00:00+00:00

Markdown Content:
**Wow, the IndieGoGo launch date of Wednesday, August 19th is approaching so fast!** (**Note:** The campaign has ended. But you can still pre-order your copy of my upcoming book _Optical Character Recognition (OCR) with Tesseract, OpenCV, and Python_ [here](https://pyimagesearch.com/ocr-with-opencv-tesseract-and-python/).)

I still have a ton of work left to do and I’m currently neck-deep in IndieGoGo campaign logistics, but I took a few minutes and recorded this sneak peak preview of _OCR with OpenCV, Tesseract, and Python:_

The video is just under six minutes and covers all the details on the IndieGoGo campaign — **[I recommend you watch the video overview if you have _any_ interest in this OCR book.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr9g86t8Uc4)**

That said, I understand and respect that you’re busy and might not have the time to watch the video, so I’ve included the high-level bullet points below:

*   **0m15s:** OCR is a simple concept — we take an input image, automatically recognize the text in the image, and then convert it to a machine-encoded variable
*   **0m30s:** But despite being such an intuitive concept, OCR is _extremely challenging._ The field of CV has existed for over 50 years but we _still_ have not solved OCR
*   **0m45s:** Trying to code custom OCR software is near impossible. And utilizing OCR engines such as Tesseract can be challenging if you don’t know which knobs and dials to tune
*   **1m20s:** Deep learning is responsible for unprecedented accuracy in computer vision — but which models, layer types, and loss functions do you use for OCR?
*   **2m00s:** This book will teach you how to successfully (and confidently) apply OCR to your work, research, and projects
*   **2m15s:** I discuss and demo the OCR projects you will learn inside the text, including OCR basics, text detection, automatically OCR’ing documents/forms, training custom OCR models with Tesseract, ANPR, handwriting recognition, OCR in video, _and more!_
*   **3m40s:** Since this book covers such a large amount of content, I’ve decided to break the book down into three volumes, called **_“bundles”_**. You’ll be able to choose a bundle based on how in-depth you want to study OCR, which projects/chapters interest you the most, along with your particular budget.
*   **4m10s:** I show what chapters are included in each bundle.
*   **5m47s:** OCR is extremely hard, but my new book un-weaves all the complexity for you and gives you a clear, easy to follow path to successfully apply OCR to your own work.

How you educate yourself defines your character.
------------------------------------------------

This past Saturday morning I finished reading Erik Larson’s _Issac’s Storm_, the true story of how a powerful hurricane _absolutely destroyed_ the town of Galveston, Texas in 1900.

This storm is considered to be _deadliest hurricane_ in United States history, not just because of the storm’s raw power, but because of man’s arrogance at the turn of the century — forecasters believed that they could not only _predict_ the weather, but _control_ it as well.

Mother nature has a way of knocking us down a few pegs and keeping our hubris in check.

One of my favorite quotes from the book is where Larson paraphrases Hippocrates, a prominent Greek physician who lived around 400 BC:

> _Hippocrates believed climate determined the character of men and nations._

It makes sense if you think about it.

*   If the weather is too hot, your fields can’t grow
*   If it’s too cold, your your crops will freeze and die
*   If it rains too much, your town will flood
*   And if it’s too windy, your house will blow over

It’s hard to build a great nation when the weather prevents you from finding food, shelter, or employment!

**However, I personally believe it’s _education_, not climate, that determines the character of men and nations.**

*   Education is how we grow, not only as _individuals_, but _collectively_ as well.
*   Exposing ourselves to new concepts opens our minds and makes us more accepting of things we didn’t previously understand or couldn’t relate to
*   Education requires a level of _discipline_, and within that discipline we build _character_
*   The final product of routine daily education is _enlightenment_ — and it takes enlightened people to build a strong nation

I have a passion for education. Every day I allocate one hour to educating myself on a topic I don’t know much about. I then spend the rest of the day educating PyImageSearch readers (such as yourself), teaching them how to successfully apply computer vision, deep learning, and OpenCV to their own projects.

**Now, I’ll be teaching Optical Character Recognition.** I hope you’ll consider grabbing a copy of my new book next week (or, at the very least, spend some time educating yourself on a new topic — education defines your character after all).

### What's next? We recommend [PyImageSearch University](https://pyimagesearch.com/pyimagesearch-university/?utm_source=blogPost&utm_medium=bottomBanner&utm_campaign=What%27s%20next%3F%20I%20recommend).

**Course information:**  
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**I strongly believe that if you had the right teacher you could _master_ computer vision and deep learning.**

Do you think learning computer vision and deep learning has to be time-consuming, overwhelming, and complicated? Or has to involve complex mathematics and equations? Or requires a degree in computer science?

That’s _not_ the case.

All you need to master computer vision and deep learning is for someone to explain things to you in _simple, intuitive_ terms. _And that’s exactly what I do_. My mission is to change education and how complex Artificial Intelligence topics are taught.

If you're serious about learning computer vision, your next stop should be PyImageSearch University, the most comprehensive computer vision, deep learning, and OpenCV course online today. Here you’ll learn how to _successfully_ and _confidently_ apply computer vision to your work, research, and projects. Join me in computer vision mastery.

**Inside PyImageSearch University you'll find:**

*   ✓ **84 courses** on essential computer vision, deep learning, and OpenCV topics
*   ✓ **84 Certificates** of Completion
*   ✓ **114+ hours** of on-demand video
*   ✓ **Brand new courses released _regularly_**, ensuring you can keep up with state-of-the-art techniques
*   ✓ **Pre-configured Jupyter Notebooks in Google Colab**
*   ✓ Run all code examples in your web browser — works on Windows, macOS, and Linux (no dev environment configuration required!)
*   ✓ Access to **centralized code repos for _all_ 536+ tutorials** on PyImageSearch
*   ✓ **Easy one-click downloads** for code, datasets, pre-trained models, etc.
*   ✓ **Access** on mobile, laptop, desktop, etc.

[Click here to join PyImageSearch University](https://pyimagesearch.com/pyimagesearch-university/?utm_source=blogPost&utm_medium=bottomBanner&utm_campaign=What%27s%20next%3F%20I%20recommend)

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#### **About the Author**

Hi there, I’m Adrian Rosebrock, PhD. All too often I see developers, students, and researchers wasting their time, studying the wrong things, and generally struggling to get started with Computer Vision, Deep Learning, and OpenCV. I created this website to show you what I believe is the best possible way to get your start.