---
title: "OCR"
url: https://docs.catalyst.zoho.com/en/sdk/java/v1/zia-services/ocr/
description: "This page describes the method to use the Optical Character Recognition feature to detect textual characters in your Java application with sample code snippets"
last_updated: 2025-11-19T15:07:41Z
service: Zia Services
type: general
related_links:
  - name: "OCR - API"
    url: /en/api/code-reference/zia-services/ocr/#OCR
---

# Optical Character Recognition

[Zia Optical Character
Recognition](https://docs.catalyst.zoho.com/en/zia-services/help/optical-character-recognition/introduction) electronically detects textual characters in images or digital documents, and converts them into
machine-encoded text. Zia OCR can recognize text in 9 international languages and 10 Indian languages. You can
[check the list of languages and language codes
from the API documentation](https://docs.catalyst.zoho.com/en/api/code-reference/zia-services/ocr/#OCR)

> **Note:**
Catalyst does not store any of the files you upload in its systems. The files you upload are
used for one-time processing only. They are not used for ML model training purposes either. Catalyst components are
fully compliant with all applicable data protection and privacy laws.

You must specify the path to the image or document file that needs to be processed for OCR, as shown in the code below.
You can also format the response you receive as shown in the sample code. The response will also include a confidence
score, which defines the accuracy of the processing, in addition to the recognized text.

**Allowed file formats:** ._jpg,_ ._jpeg_, ._png_, ._tiff_, ._bmp_, ._pdf_

**File size limit:** 20 MB

You must specify the model type as `OCR` in `setModelType()`, and the language
codes using `setLanguageCode`. These values are optional for the `OCR` model
type. By default, it is processed as the `OCR` model type, and the languages are automatically
detected if they are not specified.

#### Sample Code Snippet 

**Package Imports**

```java
import com.zc.component.ml.ZCContent; 
import com.zc.component.ml.ZCLine;
import com.zc.component.ml.ZCML; 
import com.zc.component.ml.ZCOCRModelType; 
import com.zc.component.ml.ZCOCROptions;
import com.zc.component.ml.ZCParagraph;
import java.io.File;

```

```java
File file = new File("/Users/amelia-421/Desktop/MyImage.webp"); 
//Specify the file path 
ZCOCROptions options = ZCOCROptions.getInstance().setModelType(ZCOCRModelType.OCR).setLanguageCode("eng,tam");
//Set the model type and languages 
ZCContent ocrContent = ZCML.getInstance().getContent(file, options); 
//Call getContent() with the file object to get the detected text in ZCContent object 
//To get individual paragraphs List
paragraphs = ocrContent.getParagraphs(); 
for(ZCParagraph paragraph : paragraphs)
{ 
//To get individual lines in the paragraph 
List paraLines = paragraph.lines; 
for(ZCLine line : paraLines)
{ 
//To get individual words in the line
String words = line.words; 
String text = line.text; 
//Raw line text 
} 
String text = paragraph.text; 
//Returns the raw paragraph text 
} 
String text = ocrContent.text; 
//Returns the raw image text

```