This has been tested with Python 3.11. Newer/older versions might work. For now it can be installed with pip install https://github.com/AuroraWright/owocr/archive/master.zip

Supported providers

Local providers

Manga OCR: refer to the readme for installation ("m" key)
EasyOCR: refer to the readme for installation ("e" key)
PaddleOCR: refer to the wiki for installation ("o" key)
Apple Vision framework: this will work on macOS Ventura or later if pyobjc (pip install pyobjc) is installed. In my experience, the best of the local providers for horizontal text ("a" key)
WinRT OCR: this will work on Windows 10 or later if winocr (pip install winocr) is installed. It can also be used by installing winocr on a Windows virtual machine and running the server (winocr_serve), installing requests (pip install requests) and specifying the IP address of the Windows VM/machine in the config file (see below) ("w" key)

Cloud providers

Google Vision: you need a service account .json file named google_vision.json in user directory/.config/ and installing google-cloud-vision (pip install google-cloud-vision) ("g" key)
Azure Computer Vision: you need to specify an api key and an endpoint in the config file (see below) and to install azure-cognitiveservices-vision-computervision (pip install azure-cognitiveservices-vision-computervision) ("v" key)

Usage

It mostly functions like Manga OCR: https://github.com/kha-white/manga-ocr?tab=readme-ov-file#running-in-the-background However:

you can pause/unpause the clipboard image processing by pressing "p" or terminate the script with "t" or "q"
you can switch OCR provider with its corresponding keyboard key (refer to the list above). You can also start the script paused with the -p option or with a specific provider with the -e option (refer to owocr -h for the list)
holding ctrl or cmd at any time will pause the clipboard image processing temporarily
for systems where text can be copied to the clipboard at the same time as images, if *ocr_ignore* is copied with an image, the image will be ignored
a config file (located in user directory/.config/owocr_config.ini) can be used to limit providers (to reduce clutter/memory usage) as well as specifying provider settings such as api keys etc (a sample config file is provided)

Acknowledgments

This uses code from/references these projects:

Manga OCR
ocrmac for the Apple Vision framework API
NadeOCR for the Google Vision API