.\" DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE!  It was generated by help2man 1.49.2.
.TH OCRAD "1" "January 2024" "GNU ocrad 0.29" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
ocrad \- optical text recognition tool
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B ocrad
[\fI\,options\/\fR] [\fI\,files\/\fR]
.SH DESCRIPTION
GNU Ocrad is an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) program based on a
feature extraction method. It reads images in png or pnm formats and
produces text in byte (8\-bit) or UTF\-8 formats. The formats pbm (bitmap),
pgm (greyscale), and ppm (color) are collectively known as pnm.
.PP
Ocrad includes a layout analyser able to separate the columns or blocks
of text normally found on printed pages.
.PP
For best results the characters should be at least 20 pixels high. If
they are smaller, try the option \fB\-\-scale\fR. Scanning the image at 300 dpi
usually produces a character size good enough for ocrad.
Merged, very bold, or very light (broken) characters are normally not
recognized correctly. Try to avoid them.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
\fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-help\fR
display this help and exit
.TP
\fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR
output version information and exit
.TP
\fB\-a\fR, \fB\-\-append\fR
append text to output file
.TP
\fB\-c\fR, \fB\-\-charset=\fR<name>
try '\-\-charset=help' for a list of names
.TP
\fB\-e\fR, \fB\-\-filter=\fR<name>
try '\-\-filter=help' for a list of names
.TP
\fB\-E\fR, \fB\-\-user\-filter=\fR<file>
user\-defined filter, see manual for format
.TP
\fB\-f\fR, \fB\-\-force\fR
force overwrite of output file
.TP
\fB\-F\fR, \fB\-\-format=\fR<fmt>
output format (byte, utf8)
.TP
\fB\-i\fR, \fB\-\-invert\fR
invert image levels (white on black)
.TP
\fB\-l\fR, \fB\-\-layout\fR
perform layout analysis
.TP
\fB\-o\fR, \fB\-\-output=\fR<file>
place the output into <file>
.TP
\fB\-q\fR, \fB\-\-quiet\fR
suppress all messages
.TP
\fB\-s\fR, \fB\-\-scale\fR=\fI\,[\-]\/\fR<n>
scale input image by [1/]<n>
.TP
\fB\-t\fR, \fB\-\-transform=\fR<name>
try '\-\-transform=help' for a list of names
.TP
\fB\-T\fR, \fB\-\-threshold=\fR<n>
threshold for binarization (0.0\-1.0)
.TP
\fB\-u\fR, \fB\-\-cut=\fR<l,t,w,h>
cut the input image by the rectangle given
.TP
\fB\-v\fR, \fB\-\-verbose\fR
be verbose
.TP
\fB\-x\fR, \fB\-\-export=\fR<file>
export results in ORF format to <file>
.PP
If no files are specified, or if a file is '\-', ocrad reads the image
from standard input.
If the option \fB\-o\fR is not specified, ocrad sends text to standard output.
.PP
Exit status: 0 for a normal exit, 1 for environmental problems
(file not found, invalid command\-line options, I/O errors, etc), 2 to
indicate a corrupt or invalid input file, 3 for an internal consistency
error (e.g., bug) which caused ocrad to panic.
.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
Report bugs to bug\-ocrad@gnu.org
.br
Ocrad home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/ocrad/ocrad.html
.br
General help using GNU software: http://www.gnu.org/gethelp
.SH COPYRIGHT
Copyright \(co 2024 Antonio Diaz Diaz.
License GPLv2+: GNU GPL version 2 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
.br
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
The full documentation for
.B ocrad
is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the
.B info
and
.B ocrad
programs are properly installed at your site, the command
.IP
.B info ocrad
.PP
should give you access to the complete manual.