brew

Install tesseract with Homebrew, chocolatey, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, scoop, winget, zypper

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) engine. Version 5.5.2 via Homebrew; verified from local package data.

Install command Security notes

install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%

brew install tesseract

local Homebrew formula metadata

MacPortsverified · 94%

sudo port install tesseract

MacPorts ports tree · textproc/tesseract/Portfile · source: api.github.com

Linux

Debian aptverified · 92%

sudo apt install libtesseract-dev

Debian stable package indexes · libtesseract-dev · source: deb.debian.org

Fedora dnfverified · 92%

sudo dnf install mingw32-tesseract

Fedora Rawhide package metadata · mingw32-tesseract · source: dl.fedoraproject.org

Nixverified · 92%

nix profile install nixpkgs#tesseract

nixpkgs package indexes · tesseract · source: raw.githubusercontent.com

Arch Linux pacmanverified · 92%

sudo pacman -S tesseract

Arch Linux sync databases · tesseract · source: geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com

openSUSE zypperverified · 92%

sudo zypper install tesseract

openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata · tesseract · source: download.opensuse.org

Windows

Chocolateyverified · 92%

choco install tesseract

Chocolatey community package catalog · tesseract · source: community.chocolatey.org

Scoopverified · 92%

scoop install main/tesseract

Scoop official bucket manifest trees · bucket/tesseract.json · source: api.github.com

Windows Package Managerverified · 92%

winget install --id Tesseract.Tesseract.Stable -e

Windows Package Manager source index · Tesseract.Tesseract.Stable · source: cdn.winget.microsoft.com

overview

Package summary

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) engine

Project links

Commands and aliases

ambiguous_words
classifier_tester
cntraining
combine_lang_model
combine_tessdata
dawg2wordlist
lstmeval
lstmtraining
merge_unicharsets
mftraining
set_unicharset_properties
shapeclustering
tesseract
text2image
unicharset_extractor
wordlist2dawg

history

Project history and usage

Tesseract is one of the canonical open-source OCR engines and includes both libtesseract and the `tesseract` command-line program. Official docs describe an Apache-licensed OCR engine usable from the shell or through C and C++ APIs, with Unicode support, trained data for more than 100 languages, and output formats including plain text, hOCR, searchable PDF, TSV, ALTO, and PAGE.

Project history

Tesseract began as a Hewlett-Packard OCR engine developed at HP Laboratories Bristol and HP Greeley between 1985 and 1994. HP later made Windows and C++ changes, open-sourced the project in 2005, and Google developed it from 2006 until August 2017.

The modern project is maintained in the tesseract-ocr GitHub organization. The official README names Stefan Weil as current lead developer, Ray Smith as lead developer until 2017, and Zdenko Podobny as maintainer. Tesseract 4 introduced an LSTM neural-network recognizer, and version 5 became the current stable major line with release 5.0.0 on November 30, 2021.

Adoption history

Tesseract's adoption is unusually broad for a CLI package because it sits at the boundary between desktop utilities, archival workflows, library APIs, and machine-learning-era OCR. Package metadata lists it across Homebrew, Chocolatey, Debian, Fedora, MacPorts, Nix, Arch, Scoop, Ubuntu, winget, and openSUSE, reflecting long-term cross-platform demand.

How it is used

The classic package-manager usage is `tesseract imagename outputbase`, optionally adding language, OCR engine mode, page segmentation mode, and config files. Users install language data, run OCR from shell scripts, generate text or searchable PDFs, and let higher-level wrappers call libtesseract where an application needs embedded OCR.

Why package nerds care

Tesseract is a package-nerd landmark because installing it correctly is often half the battle: the engine, traineddata files, image libraries, compiler flags, and wrapper bindings must line up. It is also a rare package where command-line users, distro maintainers, data archivists, and application developers all care about the same executable.

Timeline

1985-1994: Hewlett-Packard develops the original Tesseract OCR engine.
2005: HP open-sources Tesseract.
2006: Official release notes list Tesseract 1.00 on June 17, 2006.
2006-2017: Google develops Tesseract.
2018: Tesseract 4.0.0 released with the LSTM-era OCR engine.
2021: Tesseract 5.0.0 released on November 30, 2021.
2025: Release notes list Tesseract 5.5.2 on December 26, 2025.

Related projects

Tesseract is closely related to tessdata trained models, Leptonica image processing, OCRopus LSTM history, GUI front ends, language-specific wrappers, and document-processing tools that need OCR output.

Sources

security posture

Risk level: orange

broad file, network, media, or database tool signal. infrastructure mutation or orchestration signal.

Risk classifier

orange risk · medium confidence · infrastructure

Why

broad file, network, media, or database tool signal
infrastructure mutation or orchestration signal

Signals

text:cluster
text:image

Install behavior

No Homebrew post-install hook is recorded in formula metadata.
Homebrew bottle metadata is available for 6 platform targets.
Installs with 10 runtime dependencies.
Build metadata lists 4 build dependencies.

Recommended review

Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.

executables

Installed executables

Command	Kind	Exposure
`ambiguous_words`	cli	global executable
`classifier_tester`	cli	global executable
`cntraining`	cli	global executable
`combine_lang_model`	cli	global executable
`combine_tessdata`	cli	global executable
`dawg2wordlist`	cli	global executable
`lstmeval`	cli	global executable
`lstmtraining`	cli	global executable
`merge_unicharsets`	cli	global executable
`mftraining`	cli	global executable
`set_unicharset_properties`	cli	global executable
`shapeclustering`	cli	global executable
`tesseract`	cli	global executable
`text2image`	cli	global executable
`unicharset_extractor`	cli	global executable
`wordlist2dawg`	cli	global executable

freshness

Version and freshness

These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.

page generated2026-07-08

manager version5.5.2

manager updated

local dataok

upstreamcurrent

latest detected5.5.2

https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract

infoNo package-manager update timestamp was available.low confidence

install metadata

Package metadata

Package key	brew:tesseract
Version	5.5.2
Package manager	Homebrew
Package manager page	https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/tesseract
Homepage	https://tesseract-ocr.github.io/
Repository	https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract
Upstream docs	https://tesseract-ocr.github.io/tessdoc
License	Apache-2.0
Source archive	https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract/archive/refs/tags/5.5.2.tar.gz
Dependencies	cairo, fontconfig, freetype, gettext, glib, harfbuzz, icu4c@78, leptonica, libarchive, pango
Build dependencies	autoconf, automake, libtool, pkgconf
Bottle	available (on arm64_linux, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, sonoma, x86_64_linux)
Homebrew post-install	not defined
Service	none declared
Caveats	This formula contains only the "eng", "osd", and "snum" language data files. If you need any other supported languages, run `brew install tesseract-lang`.

registry facts

Source database details

Source Database	Homebrew formula API
Tap	homebrew/core
Full Name	tesseract
Version Scheme	0
Revision	0
Head Version	HEAD
Bottle Stable Root URL	https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core
Deprecated	no
Disabled	no
Keg Only	no
URL Keys	head stable

source database matches

Other package-manager records

Matches are pulled from external package-manager indexes and kept separate from local Automic Vault package links.

Debian apt95%

libtesseract-dev 5.5.0-1+b1

Development files for the tesseract command line OCR tool

https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/

sudo apt install libtesseract-dev

Section: libdevel
Architecture: amd64
Source Package: tesseract
5 dependencies
normalized package name match
Matched by: Tesseract

Debian stable package indexes · deb.debian.org · Debian stable package indexes: libtesseract-dev from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz

Debian apt95%

libtesseract5 5.5.0-1+b1

Tesseract OCR library

https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/

sudo apt install libtesseract5

Section: libs
Architecture: amd64
Source Package: tesseract
7 dependencies
normalized package name match
Matched by: Tesseract

Debian stable package indexes · deb.debian.org · Debian stable package indexes: libtesseract5 from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz

Debian apt95%

tesseract-ocr 5.5.0-1+b1

Tesseract command line OCR tool

https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/

sudo apt install tesseract-ocr

Section: graphics
Architecture: amd64
Source Package: tesseract
16 dependencies
normalized package name match
Matched by: Tesseract

Debian stable package indexes · deb.debian.org · Debian stable package indexes: tesseract-ocr from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz

Debian apt95%

tesseract-ocr-all 5.5.0-1

Tesseract OCR with all language and script packages

https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/

sudo apt install tesseract-ocr-all

Section: graphics
Architecture: all
Source Package: tesseract
32 dependencies
normalized package name match
Matched by: Tesseract

Debian stable package indexes · deb.debian.org · Debian stable package indexes: tesseract-ocr-all from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz

Nix95%

tesseract

nix profile install nixpkgs#tesseract

normalized package name match
Matched by: Tesseract

nixpkgs package indexes · raw.githubusercontent.com · nixpkgs package indexes: tesseract from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/master/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix

Ubuntu apt95%

libtesseract-dev 5.3.4-1build5

Development files for the tesseract command line OCR tool

https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/

sudo apt install libtesseract-dev

Section: universe/libdevel
Architecture: amd64
Source Package: tesseract
5 dependencies
normalized package name match
Matched by: Tesseract

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes · archive.ubuntu.com · Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: libtesseract-dev from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz

Ubuntu apt95%

libtesseract5 5.3.4-1build5

Tesseract OCR library

https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/

sudo apt install libtesseract5

Section: universe/libs
Architecture: amd64
Source Package: tesseract
7 dependencies
normalized package name match
Matched by: Tesseract

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes · archive.ubuntu.com · Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: libtesseract5 from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz

Ubuntu apt95%

tesseract-ocr 5.3.4-1build5

Tesseract command line OCR tool

https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/

sudo apt install tesseract-ocr

Section: universe/graphics
Architecture: amd64
Source Package: tesseract
16 dependencies
normalized package name match
Matched by: Tesseract

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes · archive.ubuntu.com · Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: tesseract-ocr from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz

Ubuntu apt95%

tesseract-ocr-all 5.3.4-1build5

Tesseract OCR with all language and script packages

https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/

sudo apt install tesseract-ocr-all

Section: universe/graphics
Architecture: all
Source Package: tesseract
32 dependencies
normalized package name match
Matched by: Tesseract

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes · archive.ubuntu.com · Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: tesseract-ocr-all from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz

dnf95%

mingw32-tesseract 5.5.2-3.fc45

MinGW Windows tesseract-ocr library

https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract

sudo dnf install mingw32-tesseract

License: Apache-2.0
Category: Unspecified
Architecture: noarch
Source Package: tesseract
4 dependencies
3 provides
normalized package name match
Matched by: Tesseract

Fedora Rawhide package metadata · dl.fedoraproject.org · Fedora Rawhide package metadata: mingw32-tesseract from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst

dnf95%

mingw32-tesseract-tools 5.5.2-3.fc45

MinGW Windows tesseract-ocr library tools

https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract

sudo dnf install mingw32-tesseract-tools

License: Apache-2.0
Category: Unspecified
Architecture: noarch
Source Package: tesseract
4 dependencies
1 provides
normalized package name match
Matched by: Tesseract

Fedora Rawhide package metadata · dl.fedoraproject.org · Fedora Rawhide package metadata: mingw32-tesseract-tools from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst

dnf95%

mingw64-tesseract 5.5.2-3.fc45

MinGW Windows tesseract-ocr library

https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract

sudo dnf install mingw64-tesseract

License: Apache-2.0
Category: Unspecified
Architecture: noarch
Source Package: tesseract
4 dependencies
3 provides
normalized package name match
Matched by: Tesseract

Fedora Rawhide package metadata · dl.fedoraproject.org · Fedora Rawhide package metadata: mingw64-tesseract from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst

dnf95%

mingw64-tesseract-tools 5.5.2-3.fc45

MinGW Windows tesseract-ocr library tools

https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract

sudo dnf install mingw64-tesseract-tools

License: Apache-2.0
Category: Unspecified
Architecture: noarch
Source Package: tesseract
4 dependencies
1 provides
normalized package name match
Matched by: Tesseract

Fedora Rawhide package metadata · dl.fedoraproject.org · Fedora Rawhide package metadata: mingw64-tesseract-tools from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst

dnf95%

tesseract 5.5.2-3.fc45

Raw OCR Engine

https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract

sudo dnf install tesseract

License: Apache-2.0
Category: Unspecified
Architecture: x86_64
Source Package: tesseract
9 dependencies
1 provides
normalized package name match
Matched by: Tesseract

Fedora Rawhide package metadata · dl.fedoraproject.org · Fedora Rawhide package metadata: tesseract from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst

dnf95%

tesseract-common 5.5.2-3.fc45

Configuration files for ${name}

https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract

sudo dnf install tesseract-common

License: Apache-2.0
Category: Unspecified
Architecture: noarch
Source Package: tesseract
1 dependencies
1 provides
normalized package name match
Matched by: Tesseract

Fedora Rawhide package metadata · dl.fedoraproject.org · Fedora Rawhide package metadata: tesseract-common from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst

dnf95%

tesseract-devel 5.5.2-3.fc45

Development files for tesseract

https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract

sudo dnf install tesseract-devel

License: Apache-2.0
Category: Unspecified
Architecture: i686
Source Package: tesseract
5 dependencies
3 provides
normalized package name match
Matched by: Tesseract

Fedora Rawhide package metadata · dl.fedoraproject.org · Fedora Rawhide package metadata: tesseract-devel from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst

source trail

Generated from repository data

This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.

Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub.

combined/tesseract.yml

Used sources

Geiger risk classifier
Nucleus package database
av.db category and tag curation
cross-ecosystem install command graph
curated package history
external package-manager database matches
package relationship graph
package version freshness
package-page enrichment

Install tesseract with Homebrew, chocolatey, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, scoop, winget, zypper

Additional install commands

macOS

Linux

Windows

Package summary

Project links

Commands and aliases

Project history and usage

Project history

Adoption history

How it is used

Why package nerds care

Timeline

Related projects

Sources

Risk level: orange

Risk classifier

Why

Signals

Install behavior

Recommended review

Installed executables

Version and freshness

Package metadata

Source database details

Other package-manager records

Internal package links

Topical hubs

Related tools

Same workflow

Agent security guides

Generated from repository data

Combined YAML source

Used sources