Licensing

Aspose.OCR for .NET is a commercially licensed product that can be used in trial (evaluation) mode.

Free trial

You can start using Aspose.OCR for .NET right after the installation. In trial mode (without providing a license) you can recognize texts in any supported languages and save recognition results in any of the supported formats.

However, the following restrictions apply:

  • If the number of characters in a recognized image exceeds 300, only the first 300 characters are recognized.
  • If the number of characters in a recognized image is less than 300, the first 60% of characters are recognized.

Apply a license to remove the restriction.

Getting a temporary license

A temporary license removes a limitation of the trial version for 30 days. Use it to start building a fully functional OCR application and make the final decision to purchase Aspose.OCR for .NET later.

To request a temporary license, visit “Get a Temporary License” page.

Purchasing a license

Aspose.OCR for .NET is licensed either by the number of developers and locations (sites) where the products will be used (Developer and Site licenses) or by pay-per-use (Metered licenses).

Read License Types for details and purchase a license that best suits your needs.

Applying a developer or site license

After purchasing a license or obtaining a temporary license, you will receive a file with .lic extension. If needed, you can rename this file and change its extension.

The license must be applied once per application or process lifecycle before recognition starts. For desktop applications, it is recommended to load the license in the Initialize method of the main form. For web applications, load it in the Session_Start() method of global.asax file.

Loading a license from file

Put the license file to a folder on your computer and insert the following code in your startup method:

// Initialize the licensing object
Aspose.OCR.License license = new Aspose.OCR.License();

// Load the license from file
license.SetLicense("Aspose_OCR_License_File.lic");

If only the name of the license file (without path) is specified, SetLicense method will look for the license file in the following locations:

  • the folder that contains Aspose.OCR for .NET component (Aspose.OCR.dll);
  • the folder that contains the calling assembly;
  • the folder that contains the entry (startup) assembly.

Alternatively, you can store the license file in any folder on your computer and specify an absolute or relative path. If you prefer to load the license from the explicit path, provide the full path in SetLicense method.

Loading a license from stream

Insert the following code in your startup method:

// Initialize the licensing object
Aspose.OCR.License license = new Aspose.OCR.License();

// Read the license from file
System.IO.FileStream lisenseStream = new System.IO.FileStream(@"C:\Aspose_OCR_License_File.lic", System.IO.FileMode.Open, System.IO.FileAccess.Read);

// Load the license
license.SetLicense(licenseStream);

Including a license file as an embedded resource

You can include the license file as an embedded resource into one of the assemblies that call Aspose.OCR for .NET. This ensures that the file is not accidentally lost.

  • In Microsoft Visual Studio, right-click the project in Solution Explorer and select Add | Existing Item… from the context menu.
  • Select the license (.lic) file and click Add button.
  • Select the license file in Solution Explorer and set its Build Action property to Embedded resource.

Then insert the following code in your startup method:

// Initialize the licensing object
Aspose.OCR.License license = new Aspose.OCR.License();

// Load the license from file
license.SetLicense("Aspose_OCR_License_File.lic");

You do not need to call GetExecutingAssembly and GetManifestResourceStream methods of the System.Reflection.Assembly class to access the embedded license. Aspose.OCR.License class will automatically find the license file in the embedded resources.

Applying a metered license

When you purchase a metered license, you will receive a Public/Private Key pair instead of a license file. Use the following code in your startup method to apply the license keys:

// License key pair
string publicKey = "PUBLIC-LICENSE-KEY";
string privateKey = "PRIVATE-LICENSE-KEY";

// Initialize the metered license
Aspose.OCR.Metered meteredLicense = new Aspose.OCR.Metered();
meteredLicense.SetMeteredKey(publicKey, privateKey);

Your usage will be recorded locally and regularly reported back to Aspose servers. You will be billed monthly for what you use. This licensing mechanism requires that the computer running the OCR application has a stable Internet connection and that the application is not blocked by a firewall.

Read Metered Licensing FAQ for in-depth technical and business details.

Licensing multiple Aspose products

Even if you have a single license for all Aspose products (such as Aspose.Total for .NET), you still need to apply the license separately to each Aspose product you are using in your application.

Every Aspose product has a License class in its namespace. Use the fully qualified License class name when applying licenses to each product to avoid ambiguity. For example:

// Aspose.OCR
Aspose.OCR.License OCRLicense = new Aspose.OCR.License();
OCRLicense.SetLicense("Aspose_OCR_License_File.lic");

// Aspose.BarCode
Aspose.BarCode.License barcodeLicense = new Aspose.BarCode.License();
barcodeLicense.SetLicense("Aspose_BarCode_License_File.lic");
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