# Image to Text OCR: Chinese, Japanese, Korean (`inkbridge/image-to-text-ocr-chinese-japanese-korean`) Actor

Read text from image links, with a confidence score per image. Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English. Pay per image; failed images cost nothing. 圖片文字辨識 OCR：繁體中文、简体中文、日本語、한국어。

- **URL**: https://apify.com/inkbridge/image-to-text-ocr-chinese-japanese-korean.md
- **Developed by:** [Inkbridge Studio](https://apify.com/inkbridge) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.50 / 1,000 image reads

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Image to Text OCR: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, English

Give it image links. Get the text back, with a confidence score for each image. Built for Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English, so it suits receipts, screenshots, product photos, signs and scanned pages.

### 中文、日本語、한국어

- **繁體中文 OCR：** 給圖片網址，把圖片裡的文字轉成文字，支援繁體中文、简體中文、日文、韓文與英文。每張 US$0.002，讀不到的圖不收費。
- **简体中文 OCR：** 提供图片链接，识别图片中的文字，支持简体中文、繁体中文、日文、韩文和英文。每张 US$0.002，读取失败不收费。
- **日本語 OCR：** 画像の URL から文字を読み取ります。日本語、中国語、韓国語、英語に対応。1 枚 US$0.002、読み取れなかった画像は無料です。
- **한국어 OCR:** 이미지 URL에서 글자를 추출합니다. 한국어, 중국어, 일본어, 영어를 지원합니다. 이미지당 US$0.002, 읽지 못한 이미지는 무료입니다.

### Use cases

- Pull text from product photos and labels you have the right to use.
- Read screenshots of Chinese, Japanese or Korean apps and web pages, ready for translation.
- Extract text from menus, posters and signs.
- Prepare image text in Asian languages for search, RAG or LLM pipelines.

### What it does

- Reads PNG, JPEG, WebP, TIFF, BMP and GIF images from public URLs (first frame of a GIF).
- Returns plain text and an average confidence from 0 to 100, so you can flag weak results.
- Tells you which images failed and why. One bad link does not stop the others.

### How to use it

1. Add image links to **Image URLs**.
2. Pick **OCR languages**. Choose only what your images contain; extra languages run slower and can lower accuracy.
3. Run it. You get one row per image.

### Pricing

- US$0.002 per image read.
- An image that cannot be read costs nothing.
- Each run also has a US$0.00005 start fee.

### Output

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| url | The image link |
| text | The text found |
| confidence | Average confidence, 0 to 100 |
| width, height | Image size in pixels |
| error | Why the image failed, otherwise empty |

### Limits

- Links must be public. 25 MB per image.
- Clean printed text works best. Handwriting, stylised logos, heavy glare and very small text read poorly.
- Text only: no layout, tables or image descriptions. For PDFs, use our PDF to Markdown & Text with OCR Actor.

### Run it from code

Call it through the Apify API with this input:

```
{
  "imageUrls": ["https://example.com/label.jpg"],
  "ocrLanguages": ["chi_tra", "eng"]
}
```

Language codes: eng, chi_tra (Traditional Chinese), chi_sim (Simplified Chinese), jpn, kor.

### FAQ

**Does it translate?** No. It returns the text in the original language.

**How do I spot bad results?** Check confidence. In our tests a clean Chinese product image scored about 81, and a dense lab table scored about 64 with some garbled lines.

**Which engine does it use?** Tesseract, running inside the Actor. Images are not sent to a third-party OCR service.

### Data

Images are processed only to produce your output, which stays in your own Apify storage. Use only images you have the right to process, and be careful with images that show personal information.

Questions or an image that fails? Open an issue on this Actor's Issues tab.

# Actor input Schema

## `imageUrls` (type: `array`):

Public image links, one per line.

## `ocrLanguages` (type: `array`):

Languages in your images. Pick only what you need.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "imageUrls": [
    "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdoc/main/images/eurotext.png"
  ],
  "ocrLanguages": [
    "eng"
  ]
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "imageUrls": [
        "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdoc/main/images/eurotext.png"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("inkbridge/image-to-text-ocr-chinese-japanese-korean").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "imageUrls": ["https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdoc/main/images/eurotext.png"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("inkbridge/image-to-text-ocr-chinese-japanese-korean").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "imageUrls": [
    "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdoc/main/images/eurotext.png"
  ]
}' |
apify call inkbridge/image-to-text-ocr-chinese-japanese-korean --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,inkbridge/image-to-text-ocr-chinese-japanese-korean"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/XoigLHdhQRcznCp0y/builds/SmrswA5F2MN3c4nvq/openapi.json