# What is Einstein OCR?

Einstein OCR (optical character recognition) provides models that detect typed and handwritten text in an image or PDF.

You access the models from a single REST API endpoint. Each model is used for specific use cases, such as business card scanning, product lookup, and digitizing documents and tables.

| Model ID     | Used For                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        | Recommended Task Parameter Values                                             |
| ------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `OCRModel`   | <ul> <li> Business card, pass a `task` parameter value of `contact`</li> </ul>                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  | <ul><li> `contact` </li></ul>                                                 |
| `tabulatev2` | <ul><li> Unformatted text, pass a `task` parameter value of `text`.</li><li> Text in tables. Pass a task `parameter` value of `table`.</li> <li> Standard form, pass a `task` parameter value of `form`.</li> <li> Custom form, pass a `task` parameter value of `form` .</li> <li> Invoices, pass a `task` parameter value of invoice. </li><li> Support for typed and handwritten text recognition.</li></ul> | <ul> <li> `text`</li><li>`table`</li><li>`form` </li><li>`invoice` </li></ul> |

When you call the API, you send in an image, and the JSON response contains various elements based on the value of the task parameter:

- String of alphanumeric characters that the model predicts.
- Confidence (probability) that the detected bounding box contains text.
- XY coordinates for the location of the character string within the image (also called a bounding box).
- For tabular data, the table row and column in which the text is located.
- For business cards, the entity type of the detected text such as ORG, PERSON, and so on.
- For common forms, key-value pairs that contain the detected text, bounding box data for the detected text, and the entity (a consistent field name).

Here’s a sample image. The orange boxes and text indicate the detected text.

<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width:500px;" src="../../../media/emergency-evacuation-route-signpost_ocr.jpg">

:::note
Currently, Einstein OCR supports only English.
:::