pytessarct
pytesseract is a Python wrapper for Google Tesseract that provides optical character recognition.
About pytessarct
pytesseract is a Python wrapper for Google's Tesseract-OCR Engine that recognizes and reads text embedded in images. It works as a library and as a stand-alone invocation script that prints recognized text instead of writing it to a file. It handles image types supported by the Pillow and Leptonica libraries, including jpeg, png, gif, bmp and tiff, and exposes text, box, orientation, PDF, HOCR and ALTO XML outputs. It requires a separate Tesseract executable, set in PATH or via tesseract_cmd.
Key features
- Convert images to text with image_to_string
- Get bounding box estimates with image_to_boxes
- Get verbose OCR data including confidences and page numbers
- Detect orientation and script with image_to_osd
- Generate searchable PDF, HOCR, and ALTO XML output
- Process OpenCV images and NumPy arrays
Best for: Python developers who need to extract text from images using Tesseract in code or scripts.
Good for
- Reads image types supported by Pillow and Leptonica, including jpeg, png, gif, bmp and tiff
- Works as a library and as a stand-alone script that prints recognized text
- Can return multiple output types in one call to save compute time
Watch out for
- Requires a separate Tesseract executable in PATH or set via tesseract_cmd
- File paths passed directly must be Tesseract-supported images or Tesseract returns an error
- OpenCV images must be converted from BGR to RGB because pytesseract assumes RGB
pytessarct at a glance
- Category
- Development › Developer Tools
- Type
- Open-source project
- Pricing
- Not confirmed. Check the site
- Open source
- Yes · Source code
- Language
- English
- Last checked
- Oct 5, 2026 · Online when checked
- Listed
- Oct 5, 2026
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pytessarct FAQ
How do I point pytesseract to Tesseract if it is not in PATH?
Set pytesseract.pytesseract.tesseract_cmd to the full path to your Tesseract executable.
How do I stop a long-running OCR task?
Pass a timeout value to image_to_string; processing is terminated and raises RuntimeError.
What if I see an error opening tessdata files?
Add a --tessdata-dir config pointing to your tessdata directory, with double quotes around the path.
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