Project Setup

Step 1: Create the project

npx create-expo-app image-to-text-app

Step 2: Navigate to the project

cd image-to-text-app

Step 3: Install the expo-location package.

npx expo install expo-image-picker

Project Structure:

Here’s package.json file for dependencies and respective versions.

{
    "name": "image-to-text-app",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "main": "node_modules/expo/AppEntry.js",
    "scripts": {
        "start": "expo start",
        "android": "expo start --android",
        "ios": "expo start --ios",
        "web": "expo start --web"
    },
    "dependencies": {
        "expo": "~49.0.11",
        "expo-status-bar": "~1.6.0",
        "react": "18.2.0",
        "react-native": "0.72.4",
        "expo-image-picker": "~14.3.2"
    },
    "devDependencies": {
        "@babel/core": "^7.20.0"
    },
    "private": true
}

In this article, we are going to build a step-by-step Image to Text app using React-Native. This application will allow users to extract the text from the image using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and later copy it to the clipboard or share it with others. This application is a perfect usage of React Native as the perfect framework for application development. The application will allow the user to either pick an image from the gallery or click a photo using the camera implemented in the application. Later the image will be shown and a Text component will display the extracted text.