WindowsError: [Error 2] The system cannot find the file specified pytesseract

Question

I'm trying to run this python code, but it keeps throwing the same error. I'm using pytesseract on a windows machine (coding in pycharm) to scan an image. I made a project on cloud9 that haevily used pytesseract in amazon web services and everything worked fine I am convinced that this is a windows problem. This is all in python 2.7 (this is a small test program I made to debug this same problem in a much bigger project)

Here's my code:

try:
import Image
except ImportError:
    from PIL import Image
import pytesseract


filename = "Z:\Pycharm Projects\IBM-Waldon-master\screenshots\image.png"
print pytesseract.image_to_string(Image.open(filename))

I've tried making the meat of the code a function and restarting my computer but it still throws this error:

Z:\Python27\interpeter\Scripts\python.exe "Z:/Pycharm Projects/IBM-Waldon-

master/testest.py"
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "Z:/Pycharm Projects/IBM-Waldon-master/testest.py", line 9, in <module>
    print pytesseract.image_to_string(Image.open(filename))
  File "Z:\Python27\interpeter\lib\site-packages\pytesseract\pytesseract.py", line 193, in image_to_string
    return run_and_get_output(image, 'txt', lang, config, nice)
  File "Z:\Python27\interpeter\lib\site-packages\pytesseract\pytesseract.py", line 140, in run_and_get_output
    run_tesseract(**kwargs)
  File "Z:\Python27\interpeter\lib\site-packages\pytesseract\pytesseract.py", line 111, in run_tesseract
    proc = subprocess.Popen(command, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
  File "Z:\Python27\Lib\subprocess.py", line 394, in __init__
    errread, errwrite)
  File "Z:\Python27\Lib\subprocess.py", line 644, in _execute_child
    startupinfo)
WindowsError: [Error 2] The system cannot find the file specified

Process finished with exit code 1

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered May 11 '18 at 06:24

0

On Windows, PIL uses whatever program is registered to open a temporary .BMP file. When the program returns, the temporary file is deleted.

By far the most common problem is that the program sends back a return code even before it even opens the file, and the file is deleted before it can be opened. Unfortunately the default viewer in Windows Vista and 7 has this problem; XP used the Microsoft Image and Fax viewer which was OK.

You can use File Explorer to change the program associated with .BMP files.

answered May 11 '18 at 06:24

Ontamu

201
1
5

Thanks for the quick response, I'm on windows 10. What files should I be looking for and where are they located? – May 11 '18 at 06:43
In the start menu on the right you have 'Default programs', see what is associated with the .BMP files and try different programs. In all honesty I just google searched your problem and copy/pasted the other answer that was accepted before for this issue. – Ontamu May 11 '18 at 06:52

WindowsError: [Error 2] The system cannot find the file specified pytesseract

1 Answers1