Guide to using Google Cloud Vision OCR code

This is a Python code that uses the Google Cloud Vision OCR API to extract text from images. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to use it:

Prerequisites

• Make sure you have a Google Cloud account and have set up billing.
• Create a service account with appropriate permissions to use the Cloud Vision API.
• Download the service account credentials in JSON format and save it to the same directory as this Python script.

Installing required libraries

• This code requires the following libraries to be installed:
  • google-cloud-vision
  • google-auth
  • google-auth-oauthlib
  • google-auth-httplib2
  • tkinter
  • pillow

Running the code

• Open the Python script in a code editor of your choice.
• Update the credentials file name in the following line of code to match the name of your credentials file:
• Run the Python script in your terminal.

Using the UI

• Once the script is running, a UI window will appear.
• Click on the "Load Image" button to select an image file from your computer to process.
• Alternatively, click on the "Paste Image" button to paste an image from your clipboard.
• The image will be displayed in the window and the OCR process will begin.
• The extracted text will be displayed in the text box below the image.
• If no text is extracted, a message will be displayed in red text.
• You can turn on or off the printing of the API response payload to the console by clicking on the "Print API Respond On/Off" button.

Temporary Folder

• The script will create a temporary directory to save the image files processed.
• The path of this temporary directory will be printed to the console upon running the script.
• You can change the prefix for the temporary directory by modifying the prefix argument in the following line of code:

How to get service account credentials

To create a Google API Service Account, you need to follow these steps:

Step 1: Create a Google Cloud Platform Project

To create a Google API Service Account, you must have a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) project. If you don't have one already, follow these steps to create a new project:

1. Go to the Google Cloud Console.
2. Click the project drop-down in the top navigation bar and click New Project.
3. In the New Project dialog, enter a project name and select a billing account. Then click Create.

Step 2: Enable the Required API

Before you can create a service account, you need to enable the Google API you want to use. Follow these steps to enable an API:

1. Go to the Google Cloud Console.
2. Click the Navigation menu and select APIs & Services > Dashboard.
3. Click the Enable APIs and Services button.
4. Search for the API you want to use and click it.
5. Click the Enable button.

Step 3: Create a Service Account

Once you have created a Google Cloud Platform project and enabled the API, you can create a service account:

1. Go to the Google Cloud Console.
2. Click the Navigation menu and select APIs & Services > Credentials.
3. Click the Create credentials button and select Service account key.
4. In the Create a service account key dialog, select the service account you want to use, and choose a key type. We recommend choosing the JSON key type.
5. Click the Create button.

Step 4: Download and Save the Service Account Key

After you create the service account, you will be prompted to download the service account key. The key is a JSON file that contains your private key and other important information. Follow these steps to download and save the service account key:

1. Click the Download button to download the service account key.
2. Save the key in a secure location on your computer.

Step 5: Grant Access to the Service Account

To allow the service account to access the API, you need to grant it the appropriate permissions. Follow these steps to grant access:

1. Go to the Google Cloud Console.
2. Click the Navigation menu and select APIs & Services > Credentials.
3. Find the service account you just created and click the Edit button.
4. Click the Add Member button.
5. In the New members field, enter the email address associated with the service account you just created.
6. In the Role field, select the role you want to assign to the service account. For example, if you want to access Google Drive, you can assign the Editor role.
7. Click the Save button.

Move the .json file to the same folder where your script is located.