GOCR API
OCR to the world
IMPORTANT
This is a development version. Do not expect full functionality, and expect
bugs. We have tried our best to make this release usable. As a special note, do
not do a "make install", specially since there is no reason to do it; it won't
work anyway. However, do a (cd tests/; make) and run the tests there. To get
the docs, do a (cd doc/; make). You should have LaTeX to get the reference
guide, and Doxygen to get the automatic documentation. Or you can get the
docs in gocr's homepage.
Any comments are appreciated: brunobg@sourceforge.net.
INTRODUCTION
libGOCR is a library, released under the LGPL, intended to make life easier to the developers of OCR algorithms. It handles all the internal problems, structures, data, images, etc, freeing the programmer of all this burden. All one has to do is to write a plugin (using, for example, the Module Development Kit), which "simply" processes the image of a character and returns its value. Easy.
GOCR API is a child from the original GOCR program, created by Joerg Schulenburg (which will be adapted and renamed to "Main Module). It was noted that, instead of writing only a OCR program, a library would be more interesting, because it would allow new additions painlessly. It was decided then to write the library, with support to plugins, or, as in out terminology, modules; no recompilation is necessary. Just install the module (by a make install) and you have a new module adding more power to your OCR. This system also allows the development of less available recognition patters (such as mathematical formulae, music partitures, and anything else), since you only have to focus in your problem. Not only this, but the library allows several frontends, to make the user life easier.
GETTING
GOCR's official homepage is:
http://jocr.sourceforge.net (YES, with a J)
You can also access one of the mirrors:
http://altmark.nat.uni-magdeburg.de/~jschulen/ocr/index.html
You will need to get NetPBM too. It's available at:
http://netpbm.sourceforge.net/
(we recommend that you have a version newer than August 2000, i.e., one with PAM functions. If you do, there's a pam.h file in your system).
INSTALLING
It's the usual configure/make/make install. See the INSTALL file for more information.
BUGS
This is a development version. Expect bugs. Please report them to brunobg@sourceforge.net.