Let your iOS app read texts

Can your app read messy handwriting? Apple's Vision framework can, and it's easier than you think.

#1about 4 minutes

Introduction to the Vision framework for text recognition

The Vision framework simplifies incorporating optical character recognition (OCR) into iOS and macOS applications using Swift.

#2about 4 minutes

Understanding the core Vision request workflow

The fundamental process involves creating an image request handler, defining a request, and then performing the handler to get results.

#3about 2 minutes

Simplifying text recognition with VNRecognizedTextRequest

The modern API streamlines text recognition by using the VNRecognizedTextRequest class, which returns candidate strings directly.

#4about 3 minutes

Choosing between fast and accurate recognition modes

A comparison of the 'fast' mode, which uses character detection, and the 'accurate' mode, which uses a neural network for whole-word recognition.

#5about 4 minutes

Implementing the full workflow with advanced options

A complete code walkthrough shows how to set up the request, handle completion, and improve results with language correction and custom lexicons.

#6about 6 minutes

Live demo of scanning printed text from a book

A practical demonstration using a sample app to scan a page from a printed book, showing the high accuracy of the Vision framework.

#7about 3 minutes

Demonstrating business card and receipt scanning

The demo continues by scanning a business card and a multi-language receipt, highlighting both successes and potential challenges with complex layouts.

#8about 3 minutes

Recognizing handwritten text and a brief code overview

The final demo shows the framework's capability to recognize handwritten text, followed by a quick look at the relevant Swift code in the sample project.

#9about 5 minutes

Resources and other capabilities of the Vision framework

Learn where to find documentation and tutorials, and discover other Vision features like hand and body pose detection or image classification.

#10about 3 minutes

On-device processing and cross-platform considerations

The benefits of on-device processing for speed, security, and privacy are discussed, along with potential alternatives for Android and Flutter developers.