Validate and transform between OCR file formats (hOCR, ALTO, PAGE, FineReader)
You can run the command line scripts and web interface as a Docker container, you only need Docker installed.
To start the web interface on http://localhost:8080:
docker run --rm -it -p 8080:8080 ubma/ocr-fileformat
To run the command line scripts, mount the directory containing your input
files into the container's /data
directory:
docker run --rm -it -v "$PWD":/data ubma/ocr-fileformat ocr-transform alto2.0 hocr somefile.alto
To install system-wide to /usr/local
:
sudo make install
To install without sudo
to your home directory:
make install PREFIX=$HOME/.local
If $HOME/.local/bin
is not in your PATH
, add this to your shell startup file (e.g. ~/.bashrc
or ~/.zshrc
):
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin $PATH"
The web application has a PHP backed. You can deploy it on any PHP-capable
server by copying the web
folder somewhere below the document root
of your server, e.g. /var/www/html
for Apache on Debian/Ubuntu:
sudo -u www-data cp -r web /var/www/html/ocr-fileformat
In this example the GUI would be available under http://localhost/ocr-fileformat/.
The project offers two functionalities, which can be accessd via a command line script (CLI), using a web interface (GUI) or in you own tools (API)
ocr-transform
: Transformation of OCR output between OCR formatsocr-validate
: Validation of OCR output against OCR format schemas
The web interface is for testing validation and transformations. You can upload a file or select an input file by URL.
$PREFIX/share/ocr-fileformat/xslt
- XSLT stylesheets$PREFIX/share/ocr-fileformat/xsd
- XSD schemas$PREFIX/share/ocr-fileformat/script/transform
- Transformation scripts$PREFIX/share/ocr-fileformat/script/validate
- Validation scripts
Usage: ocr-transform [-dl] <input-fmt> <output-fmt> [<input> [<output>]] [-- <saxon_opts>]
For example, you can transform an ALTO XML to a hOCR file with:
ocr-transform alto hocr sample.xml sample.hocr
Or convert from ALTO XML (version 2.1) to hOCR with:
ocr-transform alto2.1 hocr sample.alto sample.hocr
You can also pass arguments directly to the Saxon CLI by passing them after a double dash (--
). For example, to set the foo
parameter to bar
:
ocr-transform alto hocr sample.xml sample.hocr -- foo=bar
Try ocr-transform -h
to get an overview:
Usage: ocr-transform [-dhLv] [ []] [-- ] Options: --help -h Show this help --version -v Show version --debug -d Increase debug level by 1, can be repeated --list -L List transformations Transformations: abbyy hocr abbyy page alto2.0 alto3.0 alto2.0 alto3.1 alto2.0 hocr alto2.1 alto3.0 alto2.1 alto3.1 alto2.1 hocr alto page alto text gcv hocr gcv page hocr alto2.0 hocr alto2.1 hocr page hocr text page alto page hocr page page2019 page text tei hocr Saxon options: Usage: see http://www.saxonica.com/documentation/index.html#!using-xsl/commandline Options available: -? -a -catalog -config -cr -diag -dtd -ea -expand -explain -export -ext -im -init -it -jit -l -lib -license -m -nogo -now -o -opt -or -outval -p -quit -r -relocate -repeat -s -sa -scmin -strip -t -T -target -threads -TJ -Tlevel -Tout -TP -traceout -tree -u -val -versionmsg -warnings -x -xi -xmlversion -xsd -xsdversion -xsiloc -xsl -y Use -XYZ:? for details of option XYZ Params: param=value Set stylesheet string parameter +param=filename Set stylesheet document parameter ?param=expression Set stylesheet parameter using XPath !param=value Set serialization parameter
Select the Transform
menu option. Choose a URL, an input and an output
format. Click Transform
.
The stylesheets are installed in $PREFIX/share/ocr-fileformat/xslt
and can be
used directly in your scripts and software. You will need to use an XSLT 2.0
capable stylesheet transformer.
From ╲ To | hOCR | ALTO | PAGEXML |
---|---|---|---|
hOCR | = | ✓ | ✓ |
ALTO | ✓ | = | ✓ |
PAGEXML | ✓ | ✓ | = |
FineReader | ✓ | - | ✓ |
Google Cloud Vision | ✓ | - | ✓ |
TEI | ✓ | - | - |
Usage: ocr-validate [-dhL] [] Options: --help -h Show this help --version -v Show version --debug -d Increase debug level by 1, can be repeated --list -L List available schemas Schemas: hocr alto-1-0 alto-1-1 alto-1-2 alto-1-3 alto-1-4 alto-2-0 alto-2-1 alto-2-2-draft alto-3-0 alto-3-1 alto-3-2-draft alto-4-0 alto-4-1 abbyy-6-schema-v1 abbyy-8-schema-v2 abbyy-9-schema-v1 abbyy-10-schema-v1 page-2009-03-16 page-2010-01-12 page-2010-03-19 page-2013-07-15 page-2016-07-15 page-2017-07-15 page-2018-07-15 page-2019-07-15
For example, to validate an XML file againt the ALTO 3.1 schema:
ocr-validate alto-3-1 myFile.alto
Select the Validate
menu option. Choose a URL and an schema. Click Validate
.
The XSD files are installed under $PREFIX/share/ocr-fileformat/xsd
hOCR | ALTO | PAGEXML | FineReader | Google Cloud Vision | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Validation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - |
This is free software. You may use it under the terms of the MIT License.
During the installation process several projects are included (in ./vendor
). These projects have different licenses:
- Saxon HE 9.7,
MPL
. - ALTOXML schema, "Open Source" for ALTO <= 3.1,
CC BY SA 4.0
since ALTO 4.0 - PAGE schemas,
?
- xsd-validator by Adrian Mouat @amouat,
Apache 2.0
- ABBYY FineReader XSD,
?
- hOCR-to-ALTO by Filip Kriz @filak,
MIT
- hocr-spec by Konstantin Baierer @kba,
MIT
- gcv2hocr by Endo Michiaki,
CC BY 4.0
- format-converters by OCR-D,
Apache 2.0
- prima-page-converter by PRImA Research Lab ,
Apache 2.0