# Windows OCR

### Supported languages

{% hint style="info" %}
The default language used will be based on your Windows system language (OCR language packs are available for install)
{% endhint %}

Windows OCR can only recognize languages that have the OCR language pack installed

The list can be obtained via **PowerShell** by running the following commands:

```
[Windows.Media.Ocr.OcrEngine, Windows.Foundation, ContentType = WindowsRuntime]
```

```
[Windows.Media.Ocr.OcrEngine]::AvailableRecognizerLanguages
```

### How to query for OCR language packs <a href="#how-to-query-for-ocr-language-packs" id="how-to-query-for-ocr-language-packs"></a>

To return the list of support language packs, open **PowerShell** as an Administrator (right-click, then select "Run as Administrator"), and enter the following command:

```
Get-WindowsCapability -Online | Where-Object { $_.Name -Like 'Language.OCR*' }
```

An example output:

```
Name  : Language.OCR~~~en-GB~0.0.1.0
State : NotPresent

Name  : Language.OCR~~~en-US~0.0.1.0
State : Installed

Name  : Language.OCR~~~ja-JP~0.0.1.0
State : NotPresent
```

{% hint style="info" %}
The language and location is abbreviated, so "en-US" would be "English-United States" and "en-GB" would be "English-Great Britain". If a language is not available in the output, then it's not supported by OCR.
{% endhint %}

### How to install an OCR language pack <a href="#how-to-install-an-ocr-language-pack" id="how-to-install-an-ocr-language-pack"></a>

The following commands install the OCR pack for "ja-JP":

```
$Capability = Get-WindowsCapability -Online | Where-Object { $_.Name -Like 'Language.OCR~~~ja-JP~0.0.1.0' }
```

```
$Capability | Add-WindowsCapability -Online
```