Alch.io

Alch.io is a web application for extracting tabular data from scanned documents and PDF files. After importing a series of images or PDF document to alch.io, users can recognize text (if needed), select and edit regions containing tables, and export those tables as an Excel file. Live application at alch.io. Documentation at docs.alch.io.

Running

Alch.io can be run by using the public site at alch.io. The entire program runs in your browser--your documents are not sent to a remote server.

There is currently no standalone desktop application, so running locally requires serving the files over a local HTTP server. For example, the commands below host the site locally using http-server (requires npm):

git clone --recursive https://github.com/scribeocr/alch.io.git
cd alch.io
npm i
npx http-server

The npx http-server command will print the address on your local network that alch.io is running on. You can use the site by visiting that address.

Codebase Overview

This repo only contains code specific to the alch.io web application. This consists primarily of handling user interaction with UI elements. The vast majority of the code--including code related to extracting text, recognizing text, exporting text, and displaying the document--comes from the Scribe.js and Scribe UI libraries.

1. Scribe.js (repo here) - provides all non-UI logic (extracting text, recognizing text, etc.)
2. Scribe UI (repo here) - wraps Scribe.js and provides a PDF viewer that supports editing text and layout elements.