Building Text-Grab with Joseph Finney
Learning by doing! Carl and Richard talk to Joseph Finney about his experiences building Text-Grab, a clever utility for extracting text from graphics using OCR built into Windows. Joe talks about how the 'search-with-screenshot' built into Windows 10 depends on Bing, but there is an OCR library inside Windows - why go to the cloud? The conversation dives into the challenges of handling multiple screens, screen resolutions, DPIs, language packs, and more... what seems like a simple tool is never that simple. And, as it turns out, building the app is the easy part: Now, how do you get it into the Microsoft Store? That leads to both Richard and Carl installing the app, showing that purchasing and installing an app is much harder than it needs to be!
Guests:
Joseph Finney
Joseph Finney is a Mobile Product Owner by day and builds productivity apps for Windows at night. When he is not programming he is birding, running, and enjoying tasty coffee and beer in Milwaukee.
Links:
- Google Fi FAQ https://fi.google.com/about/faq/
- Text-Grab https://github.com/TheJoeFin/Text-Grab
- Windows.Media.OCR Namespace https://docs.microsoft.com/uwp/api/windows.media.ocr
- GetPixel API https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.drawing.bitmap.getpixel?view=net-5.0
- Project Reunion https://docs.microsoft.com/windows/apps/windows-app-sdk/
- MSIX https://docs.microsoft.com/windows/msix/overview
- Text Grab on the Microsoft Store https://www.microsoft.com/p/text-grab/9mznkqj7sl0b?activetab=pivot:overviewtab
- Publishing on the Microsoft Store https://docs.microsoft.com/windows/uwp/publish/
- Files on the Microsoft Store https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/files-uwp-preview/9nghp3dx8hdx