#Local Automatic OCR For Images

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

neat depot
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Sometimes I'll attach a meme to a note, and then later I'll remember some text from the meme and want to search for it. I'd like to be able to find the meme by typing in that text.

Some services send the images to an external OCR service, but I like to maintain privacy, so I would like this be done locally if that is possible. As pictured, Evernote will even highlight the part of the picture where the text was OCR'd.

Another feature that would go hand in hand with this is to be able to copy and paste text out of an image. Clearly this could become complicated if the writing is handwriting, but even if it only applied to typed text this would be a welcome feature.

Screenshot_of_OCR_in_action.png
outer sedge
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i dont believe whole OCR service can be moved together with an application in case desktop version is used, theres still going to be a centralized ocr service where images would be sent, even if its notesnook local, or i'm wrong and my OCR knowledge is outdated

cedar tulip
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It's possible to do this locally but I am not sure about the performance costs. Search is easy (you just OCR and include the text in the alt attribute of the image). Highlighting requires more work though.

neat depot
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If the performance cost of local OCR is significant, perhaps it can be an optional feature.

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Highlighting is neat, but by no means would I consider it necessary.

cedar tulip
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OCR has come a long way so performance would probably not be an issue. The main problem is binary size, OCR quality, and languages.

On a server you have unlimited resources so things are simpler. Doing things locally means you have a lot of edge cases to think about.

neat depot
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That makes sense. For what it’s worth, I think it would add another way that Notesnook stands out, as no one to my knowledge provides local OCR as an option, and Evernote and Apple are the only ones doing automatic OCR at all.

grim fox
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I think there are a lot of us out there who want a private option and want OCR. I think you'd get a major flood of new customers if you added OCR. It's a show stopper for me and many others.