iOS OCR library
The Nutrient iOS SDK OCR library provides advanced optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities, enabling seamless text extraction, recognition, and document processing in mobile applications. Leveraging state-of-the-art OCR technology, the library converts images and scanned documents into machine-readable text with high accuracy and efficiency.
Key benefits of Nutrient iOS OCR library
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Comprehensive functionality — Seamlessly integrate OCR with a full suite of document processing tools.
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Flexible processing — Customize OCR workflows by limiting page ranges or selecting specific recognition languages.
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Effortless integration — Designed for seamless adoption within iOS applications.
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Automated data entry — Extract structured data and automatically populate form fields or databases.
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Cross-platform support — Compatible with iOS, iPadOS, Mac Catalyst, and visionOS.
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Broad file type support — Works with PDF, PNG, JPEG, JPG, TIFF, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, and XLSX.
Comparing OCR SDKs for iOS
| SDK | Features | Advantages | Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple’s Vision framework | - On-device text recognition - Language detection - Bounding box detection - Multi-language support |
- Free and native to iOS - Focus on privacy |
- Limited customization - Device-dependent performance - Relatively new - Direct generation of searchable PDFs isn’t natively supported - Reduced accuracy or processing efficiency with complex layouts, low-quality images, stylized fonts, or handwritten text - Doesn’t directly analyze native PDF files for text recognition |
| ABBYY mobile OCR engine | - 200+ language support - Advanced image preprocessing - Layout analysis - Barcode recognition |
- High accuracy - Extensive language support - Robust features |
- Commercial SDK - Resource-intensive - Large binary size |
| Scanbot SDK | - OCR for images and documents - Searchable PDF generation - Plain text extraction - Document scanning |
- Simple API - Good balance between accuracy and performance - Comprehensive scanning tools |
- Commercial SDK - Limited customization - Accuracy may not match with other SDKs in complex cases |
| Apryse OCR SDK | - IRIS OCR engine - Document editing and manipulation - PDF creation - Cross-platform compatibility |
- Comprehensive document processing - Integrated PDF SDK - Cross-platform support |
- Commercial SDK - Basic text accuracy issues - Historically had Tesseract performance issues - Large SDK size (may be excessive for OCR-only projects) |
| Nutrient iOS OCR library | - Advanced preprocessing - Multi-pass OCR - Language model dictionaries - Text segmentation - Text extraction |
- High accuracy - Optimized for complex document workflows - Handles intricate layouts |
- Commercial SDK - Requires initial learning but includes excellent support and documentation - Processing efficiency adapts to the hardware characteristics of the running device |
OCR scanning for mobile applications
Many PDF documents, especially scanned files or photographed pages, contain non-selectable text. The Nutrient iOS OCR library converts these documents into interactive PDFs, enabling text extraction, search, and annotation. The library supports multiple languages, advanced image preprocessing, and OCR capabilities that work even on documents containing both image-based and existing text objects. This ensures optimal accuracy and usability for mobile applications handling scanned documents.
Performing OCR in iOS applications
To integrate OCR functionality, use the Nutrient iOS SDK OCR API. The following entry points handle OCR operations:
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performOCROnPages(at:options:)— Processes OCR on selected pages. -
ProcessorOCROptions.init(language:)— Configures the OCR language for recognition.
For detailed implementation steps, refer to the guide on how to OCR a PDF on iOS.
Language support and framework integration
Nutrient iOS SDK includes language-specific bundles for precise text recognition. To optimize app performance and reduce file size, install only the languages required for your application.
For a complete list of supported languages, refer to the supported languages for iOS OCR guide.
Enhance mobile app development with OCR API
OCR functionality is available as an add-on. If you’re interested in enabling OCR, exploring its roadmap, or sharing feature requests, contact us.
For step-by-step instructions on OCR integration, refer to our getting started guide.
FAQs
What is the Nutrient iOS OCR library?
The Nutrient iOS OCR library provides optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities, allowing mobile applications to extract, recognize, and process text from scanned documents and images. It enhances document workflows by making text searchable, selectable, and editable.Which file formats are supported in the Nutrient iOS OCR library?
The library supports multiple file formats, including PDF, PNG, JPEG, JPG, TIFF, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, and XLSX, ensuring seamless document processing across various use cases.Can I use OCR for multilingual documents?
Yes, the Nutrient iOS OCR library supports multiple languages and enables you to specify the language of the document for accurate text recognition. You can install only the necessary language packs to reduce your app size.Do the OCR capabilities work offline?
Yes, the OCR processing runs entirely on-device, ensuring fast, private, and secure text recognition without requiring an internet connection.How accurate is the OCR text recognition?
The Nutrient iOS OCR library leverages advanced text segmentation, language model dictionaries, and multi-pass OCR processing to achieve high accuracy, even for complex layouts and scanned documents.Can I perform OCR on specific pages of a document?
Yes, you can limit OCR processing to specific page ranges, improving efficiency and reducing processing time for large documents.Is OCR an included feature or an add-on?
OCR is an add-on for Nutrient iOS SDK. Contact our Sales team to enable OCR, discuss licensing options, or learn more about its capabilities.How do I integrate OCR functionality into my iOS application?
To integrate OCR functionality, add the Nutrient iOS SDK’s OCR dependency and use the provided APIs, such asperformOCROnPages(at:options:). For detailed setup instructions, refer to our getting started guide.