image processing to improve tesseract OCR accuracy

Question

I\'ve been using tesseract to convert documents into text. The quality of the documents ranges wildly, and I\'m looking for tips on what sort of image processing might impr

Answer 1

Java version for Sathyaraj's code above:

// Resize
public Bitmap resize(Bitmap img, int newWidth, int newHeight) {
    Bitmap bmap = img.copy(img.getConfig(), true);

    double nWidthFactor = (double) img.getWidth() / (double) newWidth;
    double nHeightFactor = (double) img.getHeight() / (double) newHeight;

    double fx, fy, nx, ny;
    int cx, cy, fr_x, fr_y;
    int color1;
    int color2;
    int color3;
    int color4;
    byte nRed, nGreen, nBlue;

    byte bp1, bp2;

    for (int x = 0; x < bmap.getWidth(); ++x) {
        for (int y = 0; y < bmap.getHeight(); ++y) {

            fr_x = (int) Math.floor(x * nWidthFactor);
            fr_y = (int) Math.floor(y * nHeightFactor);
            cx = fr_x + 1;
            if (cx >= img.getWidth())
                cx = fr_x;
            cy = fr_y + 1;
            if (cy >= img.getHeight())
                cy = fr_y;
            fx = x * nWidthFactor - fr_x;
            fy = y * nHeightFactor - fr_y;
            nx = 1.0 - fx;
            ny = 1.0 - fy;

            color1 = img.getPixel(fr_x, fr_y);
            color2 = img.getPixel(cx, fr_y);
            color3 = img.getPixel(fr_x, cy);
            color4 = img.getPixel(cx, cy);

            // Blue
            bp1 = (byte) (nx * Color.blue(color1) + fx * Color.blue(color2));
            bp2 = (byte) (nx * Color.blue(color3) + fx * Color.blue(color4));
            nBlue = (byte) (ny * (double) (bp1) + fy * (double) (bp2));

            // Green
            bp1 = (byte) (nx * Color.green(color1) + fx * Color.green(color2));
            bp2 = (byte) (nx * Color.green(color3) + fx * Color.green(color4));
            nGreen = (byte) (ny * (double) (bp1) + fy * (double) (bp2));

            // Red
            bp1 = (byte) (nx * Color.red(color1) + fx * Color.red(color2));
            bp2 = (byte) (nx * Color.red(color3) + fx * Color.red(color4));
            nRed = (byte) (ny * (double) (bp1) + fy * (double) (bp2));

            bmap.setPixel(x, y, Color.argb(255, nRed, nGreen, nBlue));
        }
    }

    bmap = setGrayscale(bmap);
    bmap = removeNoise(bmap);

    return bmap;
}

// SetGrayscale
private Bitmap setGrayscale(Bitmap img) {
    Bitmap bmap = img.copy(img.getConfig(), true);
    int c;
    for (int i = 0; i < bmap.getWidth(); i++) {
        for (int j = 0; j < bmap.getHeight(); j++) {
            c = bmap.getPixel(i, j);
            byte gray = (byte) (.299 * Color.red(c) + .587 * Color.green(c)
                    + .114 * Color.blue(c));

            bmap.setPixel(i, j, Color.argb(255, gray, gray, gray));
        }
    }
    return bmap;
}

// RemoveNoise
private Bitmap removeNoise(Bitmap bmap) {
    for (int x = 0; x < bmap.getWidth(); x++) {
        for (int y = 0; y < bmap.getHeight(); y++) {
            int pixel = bmap.getPixel(x, y);
            if (Color.red(pixel) < 162 && Color.green(pixel) < 162 && Color.blue(pixel) < 162) {
                bmap.setPixel(x, y, Color.BLACK);
            }
        }
    }
    for (int x = 0; x < bmap.getWidth(); x++) {
        for (int y = 0; y < bmap.getHeight(); y++) {
            int pixel = bmap.getPixel(x, y);
            if (Color.red(pixel) > 162 && Color.green(pixel) > 162 && Color.blue(pixel) > 162) {
                bmap.setPixel(x, y, Color.WHITE);
            }
        }
    }
    return bmap;
}