Installing Tesseract-OCR on Windows devices

Tesseract-OCR is an open-source optical character recognition (OCR) engine that converts text within images into machine-readable text. Coro leverages Tesseract to identify and scan sensitive information from image files during data scans on Windows endpoint devices.

Installing Tesseract-OCR

To install Tesseract-OCR on a Windows device:

Download and execute the Tesseract-OCR installation file .
Select a language from the Installer Language dialog dropdown, and then select OK :
Select Next > :
Review the agreement terms, and then select I Agree to continue:
Select a user installation option and then select Next > :
Select the components to install. Make sure English is selected in Language data :
Select Next > :
Enter the Tesseract-OCR installation directory, or use the default. Select Next > to continue:

Important
Record the Tesseract-OCR installation directory. It is required to configure the TESSDATA_PREFIX environment variable. Without this, Tesseract-OCR might not work properly.

Important
If you enter a custom Tesseract-OCR installation directory, you must add this directory to the PATH Environment Variable to ensure Tesseract-OCR is accessible from Windows Command Prompt.
Select the start menu folder in which to create the Tesseract-OCR shortcuts, or select Do not create shortcuts .
Select Install :

Tesseract-OCR starts the installation.
After the installation completes, select Next > :
Select Finish :
Verify the Tesseract-OCR installation by opening Windows Command Prompt and entering:
Copy

Copied
```
tesseract -v
```
Windows Command Prompt displays the details of the Tesseract-OCR installation found on the device:

Important
If Windows Command Prompt does not recognize the command you must add the Tesseract-OCR installation directory to the PATH environment variable.

Creating the TESSDATA_PREFIX environment variable

note

If you installed Tesseract-OCR in a custom directory (different from the default C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR), you must perform this procedure.

Tesseract-OCR uses language data files (.traineddata) in the Tesseract-OCR\tessdata folder for OCR. If these files are missing from the default location, Tesseract-OCR might fail to process text correctly. To ensure Tesseract-OCR finds them, set the TESSDATA_PREFIX environment variable after installing it on your Windows device.

To add the TESSDATA_PREFIX environment variable:

Important

These instructions apply to Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Select Search and enter Environment Variables .
Select Edit the system environmental variables :
Select Environment Variables... from the System Properties dialog:

Under System variables , select New... :
Enter the following configuration:
- Variable name : TESSDATA_PREFIX
- Variable value : Enter the full path to the tessdata folder inside your Tesseract-OCR installation directory . For example, C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR\tessdata .
Select OK :

Windows creates the TESSDATA_PREFIX environment variable.
Verify the TESSDATA_PREFIX environment variable by opening Windows Command Prompt and entering:
Copy

Copied
```
echo %TESSDATA_PREFIX%
```
Windows Command Prompt displays the TESSDATA_PREFIX environment variable:

Adding the Tesseract-OCR installation directory to the PATH environment variable

note

If you installed Tesseract-OCR in a custom directory (different from the default C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR), you must perform this procedure.

When you add your Tesseract-OCR installation directory to the PATH environment variable, the operating system (OS) can locate and run Tesseract-OCR from Windows Command Prompt without needing the full path to the Tesseract-OCR executable file.

To add the Tesseract-OCR installation directory to the PATH environment variable:

Important

These instructions apply to Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Select Search and enter Environment Variables .
Select Edit the system environmental variables :
Select Environment Variables... from the System Properties dialog:

Locate the Path variable in the System variables list, and then select Edit... :
Select New , paste your Tesseract installation directory , and then select OK :

Windows adds the Tesseract-OCR installation directory to the PATH environment variable.
Verify the PATH environment variable by opening Windows Command Prompt and entering:
Copy

Copied
```
tesseract -v
```
Windows Command Prompt displays the details of the Tesseract-OCR installation found on the device: