Pytesseract.TesseractError 'Usage: python pytesseract.py [-l lang] input_file

Question

I am getting the following error when trying to print a simple test image to text.

I've verified that I have Pillow (PIL 1.1.7) and tried uninstalling and reinstalling pytesseract. The file paths are correct because if I change them I get another error saying that the file cannot be found.

My code:

    from PIL import Image
    import pytesseract

    pytesseract.pytesseract.tesseract_cmd= r'C:\Users\bbrown2\AppData\Local\
    Programs\Python\Python37\Scripts\pytesseract'

    img = r'C:\Users\bbrown2\Desktop\test.png'

    print(pytesseract.image_to_string(Image.open(img)))

I expect it to print out the words in the image but instead I always get this:

    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File 
   "c:\Users\bbrown2\Desktop\PythonMaterials\python_test_tesseract.py", line 
    14, in <module>
   print(pytesseract.image_to_string(Image.open(image)))
   File "C:\Users\bbrown2\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\lib\site- 
   packages\pytesseract\pytesseract.py", line 309, in image_to_string
   }[output_type]()
    File "C:\Users\bbrown2\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\lib\site- 
   packages\pytesseract\pytesseract.py", line 308, in <lambda>
   Output.STRING: lambda: run_and_get_output(*args),
   File "C:\Users\bbrown2\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\lib\site- 
   packages\pytesseract\pytesseract.py", line 218, in run_and_get_output
   run_tesseract(**kwargs)
   File "C:\Users\bbrown2\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\lib\site- 
   packages\pytesseract\pytesseract.py", line 194, in run_tesseract
   raise TesseractError(status_code, get_errors(error_string))
   pytesseract.pytesseract.TesseractError: (2, 'Usage: python pytesseract.py 
   [-l lang] input_file')

Answer 1

The problem is pytesseract is just a nice Python wrapper for the command line program Tesseract. You're supposed to point tesseract_cmd at the actual Tesseract binary, not the pytesseract CLI util.

So, you'll need to install Tesseract. Windows builds are available. I chose the version 3.05 installer, and it installed by default to C:\Program Files (x86)\Tesseract-OCR\tesseract. Then, I ran the following and it worked fine:

from PIL import Image
import pytesseract

pytesseract.pytesseract.tesseract_cmd = (
    r"C:\Program Files (x86)\Tesseract-OCR\tesseract"
)

img = r"C:\Users\cody\Desktop\ocrtest.png"

print(pytesseract.image_to_string(Image.open(img)))

Test input:

Result:

The (quick) [brown] {fox} jumps!
Over the $43,456.78 <lazy> #90 dog
& duck/goose, as 12.5% of E-mail
from [email protected] is spam.
Der ,,schnelle” braune Fuchs springt
fiber den faulen Hund. Le renard brun
«rapide» saute par-dessus le chien
paresseux. La volpe marrone rapida
salta sopra i] cane pigro. El zorro
marrén répido salta sobre el perro
perezoso. A raposa marrom répida
salta sobre 0 C50 preguicoso.