optiic

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optiic is the official npm module of Optiic, a free image recognition & optical character recognition (OCR) API. It works on any image as well as PDFs!

Optiic Works in Node AND browser environments

Yes, this module works in both Node and browser environments, including compatibility with Webpack and Browserify!

Features

• Image recognition and analysis API
• Provide images as URLs or upload them directly
• OCR
  • Extract text from the supplied image
  • Detect the language of the text
• Support for .pdf, .png, .jpeg, and many more!

Getting an API key

You can use so much of optiic for free, but if you want to do some advanced stuff, you'll need an API key. You can get one by signing up for an account.

Install Optiic

Install via npm

Install with npm if you plan to use optiic in a Node project or in the browser.

npm install optiic

If you plan to use optiic in a browser environment, you will probably need to use Webpack, Browserify, or a similar service to compile it.

const optiic = new (require('optiic'))({
  apiKey: 'api_test_key' // Not required, but having one removes limits (get your key at https://optiic.dev).
});

Install via CDN

Install with CDN if you plan to use Optiic only in a browser environment.

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/optiic@latest/dist/index.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
  let optiic = new Optiic({
    apiKey: 'api_test_Key' // Not required, but having one removes limits (get your key at https://optiic.dev).
  });
</script>

Use without installation

You can use optiic in a variety of ways that require no installation, such as curl in terminal/shell. See the Use without installation section below.

Example output

If you want to see how optiic works, you can try a sample such as this image:

This will result in an output like this:

{
  text: "We love Optiic!",
  language: "en",
}

Using Optiic

After you have followed the install step, you can start using optiic to analyze images and perform OCR from within your app!

optiic.process(options)

Submit and image to process and return the text in the image.

options

The options for process(options) are as follows.

• image string, HTML Input Element, File: The image to be processed. Can be a local path, remote URL, an HTML input, or a File object.
  • Acceptable Values: any
  • Default: null
• mode string: What type of optical recognition will be run, such as OCR.
  • Acceptable Values: ocr
  • Default: ocr

Remote URL Example

let options = {
  image: 'https://optiic.dev/assets/images/samples/we-love-optiic.png', // url of the image
  mode: 'ocr', // ocr
};

optiic.process(options)
.then(result => {
  console.log(result);
})

Local path Example

let options = {
  image: '/Users/username/Desktop/my-image.png', // local path to the image
  mode: 'ocr', // ocr
};

optiic.process(options)
.then(result => {
  console.log(result);
})

HTML Input Example

<form class="" action="" method="post">
  <input type="file" name="image" accept="image/*">
  <button type="submit">Submit</button>
</form>

<script type="text/javascript">
  var myForm = document.querySelector('form');

  myForm.addEventListener('submit', function (event) {
    event.preventDefault();

    optiic.process({
      image: myForm.querySelector('input[type="file"]'),
    })
    .then(response => {
      console.log(response);
    })
  })
</script>

Extending Capabilities

For a more in-depth documentation of this library and the Optiic service, please visit the official Optiic website.

Use without installation

Use Optiic with curl

OCR with URL

curl \
  -d '{"apiKey": "test_api_key", "url": "https://optiic.dev/assets/images/samples/we-love-optiic.png"}' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  https://api.optiic.dev/process

OCR with image file

curl \
  -F "apiKey=test_api_key" \
  -F "image=@/Users/username/Desktop/my-image.png" \
  https://api.optiic.dev/process

What Can Optiic do?

Optiic is a free OCR api that helps you analyze images and perform OCR (optical character recognition)!

Final Words

If you are still having difficulty, we would love for you to post a question to the Optiic issues page. It is much easier to answer questions that include your code and relevant files! So if you can provide them, we'd be extremely grateful (and more likely to help you find the answer!)

Projects Using this Library

Somiibo: A Social Media Bot with an open-source module library.
JekyllUp: A website devoted to sharing the best Jekyll themes.
Slapform: A backend processor for your HTML forms on static sites.
SoundGrail Music App: A resource for producers, musicians, and DJs.
Hammock Report: An API for exploring and listing backyard products.

Ask us to have your project listed! :)