DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15868719
title: SMAjram: A Large-Scale Synthetic OCR Dataset for Punjabi Shahmukhi (Perso-Arabic) Script

description: This dataset is designed for the development, training, and evaluation of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) systems for the Shahmukhi (Perso-Arabic) script, with emphasis on character-level recognition, dataset scalability, and comparative validation of machine learning and deep learning models.

 

This dataset (Shahmukhi Database - Ajram) comprises an augmented collection of Punjabi Shahmukhi keyboard character images, including context-specific alphabets, numerals, symbols, and other characters. The images, all in (.png) format with a size of 100 x 100 pixels, are organized into one primary folder and several secondary folders. The primary folder contains unique (.png) images featuring six different font sizes and 50 fonts designed explicitly for Perso-Arabic text. The dataset contains images with various augmentations, including text rotations, blurring, changes in background and contrast, and outline effects. Each secondary folder includes one copy of each image from the primary folder for comparison, while all other images in the dataset are unique.

 

It’s important to note that scripts such as Urdu, Arabic, and Persian are subsets of the Punjabi Shahmukhi script in terms of their keyboard characters. Although scripts such as Sindhi, Balochi, Pushto, Saraiki, and Kashmiri have unique characteristics, they can also use this dataset to develop algorithms for their scripts. The secondary folders enable researchers to evaluate their algorithms on this dataset for different parameters, including alphabets, characters, numerals, font sizes, and typefaces, across various difficulty levels tailored to their specific requirements.

 

The dataset includes a ground-truth file set detailing the features of each image in the file names. Additionally, the secondary folders offer enhanced versions of these images. There are 240 Shahmukhi keyboard characters, six font sizes, and 50 fonts, resulting in 72,000 PNG images in the primary folder (main folder). In primary folder 2, five rotation angles are applied to each of the 72,000 images, resulting in a total of 360,000 images. Secondary folders include blurred images (1440k), text-background gray-level variations (4680k), images, and text-border-outline-background variations, totaling 1,33,20k images. There are 1,98,72,000 (19.872 million) images in this dataset, all in PNG format (100 x 100 x 3).

 

There are two sets of the same dataset, one with Shahmukhi labels and the other with Latin labels (written in Roman).
description: Folder Details






Folder Name

(Images with Shahmukhi labels)

Description
Folder Name (Images with Latin Labels)


1-AjramMain


Primary folder 1: 240 Shahmukhi keyboard characters (alphabets, digits, and symbols) in 6 different font sizes (50 to 100) and 50 Perso-Arabic fonts. 240 (6 x 50) = 72 k png images of size 100 x 100 x 3.

1-Ajram-MainE.7z


2-AjramRot
Primary folder 2: 72k PNG images from the AjramMain folder have undergone 5 rotations per image (-45, -15, 0, 15, 45). 72k (5) = 360k PNG images of size 100 x 100 x 3.
2-Ajram-RotE.7z


3-AjramBlur


Secondary folder 1: Driven from AjramRot folder, where three blurring filters and one original image from 360k rotated images make (360k x 4) = 1440k, 100 x 100 x 3 png images in 5 folders:

Ajram-Blur1, Ajram-Blur2, Ajram-Blur3, Ajram-Blur4 and Ajram-Blur5.

3-Ajram-BlurE.7z


4-AjramComb


Secondary folder 2: Driven from AjramRot folder, where each image is presented in different combinations of text (4 gray levels) and background colors (3 gray levels). There are a total of 4680 k, 100 x 100 x 3 PNG images in 6 folders:

AjramComb1, AjramComb2, AjramComb3, AjramComb4, AjramComb5, and AjramComb6.



41-Ajram-CombE_A.7z

42-Ajram-CombE_B.7z



 
Secondary folder 3: All 360k rotated images in augmented form of text (2 levels) with highlighted border outline (3 levels) and different backgrounds (3 levels). A total of 1,33,20k, 100 x 100 x 3 PNG images. Six zip folders (A to F) contain five subfolders (4,44k images per folder).
 


51-AjramOutA
Ajram-Out1, Ajram-Out2, Ajram-Out3, Ajram-Out4,  Ajram-Out5 (4,44k PNG Images in each folder)
51-Ajram-OutEA.7z


52-AjramOutB
Ajram-Out6, Ajram-Out7, Ajram-Out8, Ajram-Out9, Ajram-Out10 (4,44k PNG Images in each folder)
52-Ajram-OutEB.7z


53-AjramOutC
Ajram-Out11, Ajram-Out12, Ajram-Out13, Ajram-Out14, Ajram-Out15 (4,44k PNG Images in each folder)
53-Ajram-OutEC.7z


54-AjramOutD
Ajram-Out16, Ajram-Out17,Ajram-Out18, Ajram-Out19, Ajram-Out20 (4,44k PNG Images in each folder)
54-Ajram-OutED.7z


55-AjramOutE
Ajram-Out21, Ajram-Out22, Ajram-Out23, Ajram-Out24, Ajram-Out25  (4,44k PNG Images in each folder)
55-Ajram-OutEE.7z


56-AjramOutF
Ajram-Out26, Ajram-Out27, Ajram-Out28, Ajram-Out29, Ajram-Out30  (4,44k PNG Images in each folder)
56-Ajram-OutEF.7z




 
description: Ground Truth Files (AjramGTXL.Zip) Description

(9 XL files inside)




Sr.
Ground Truth Files
File Description


1
1_2_AjramGT_Primary
File names and labels of Main and Rotation folders (Two Sheets)


2
3_AjramGT_Blur
File names and labels of Blur Folders (Five Sheets)


3
4_AjramGT_Comb
File names and labels of Combination Folders (Six Sheets)


4
51_AjramGT_OutA
File names and labels of Outline folders (Five sheets)


5
52_AjramGT_OutB
File names and labels of Outline folders (Five sheets)


6
53_AjramGT_OutC
File names and labels of Outline folders (Five sheets)


7
54_AjramGT_OutD
File names and labels of Outline folders (Five sheets)


8
55_AjramGT_OutE
File names and labels of Outline folders (Five sheets)


9
56_AjramGT_OutF
File names and labels of Outline folders (Five sheets)
description: Ground Truth Files (AjramGTCSV.Zip) Description




Sr.
Ground Truth Folders
File Description (.CSV)


1
1_AjramMain
1_AjramMain


2
2_AjramRot
2_AjramRot


3
3_AjramBlur
3_AjramBlur1, 3_AjramBlur2, ......, 3_AjramBlur5


4
4_AjramComb
4_AjramComb1, 4_AjramComb2, ..., 4_AjramComb6


5
51_Ajram_OutA
51_AjramOut1, 51_AjramOut2, ..., 51_AjramOut5


6
52_Ajram_OutB
52_AjramOut6, ....., 52_AjramOut10


7
53_Ajram_OutC
53_AjramOut11 , .... 52_AjramOut15


8
54_Ajram_OutD
54_AjramOut16, ..... , 54_AjramOut20


9
55_Ajram_OutE
55_AjramOut21, .... , 55_AjramOut25


10
56_Ajram_OutF
56_AjramOut26, .... , 56_AjramOut30