Skip to main content
This object exposes methods and properties for working with a single paragraph of the recognized text. A paragraph in the ABBYY FineReader Engine object model is an elementary text unit. It is through this object that a user can get:
  • the recognized text (use Text property for this purpose)
  • different paragraph parameters (ExtendedParams, ListParams, ParagraphStyle properties)
  • collections of paragraph lines and words (Lines and Words properties)
  • a single character parameters (GetCharParams, SetCharParams and GetDropCapCharParams methods)
  • bookmarks (Bookmark and UserBookmark properties)
  • The coordinates of the paragraph borders (Left, Top, Right, Bottom properties) are not available for the paragraphs of barcodes.
  • Bookmarks in ABBYY FineReader Engine are internal (technical), or custom entities with names encoded using keywords (prefixes). These keywords and their vocabulary may vary depending on the version of the technologies used.

​
Properties

Name

Type

Description

Application

Engine, read-only

Returns the Engine object.

Paragraph text, words, lines

Text

BSTR, read-only

Provides access to the recognized text of the paragraph in a form of Unicode string. It is through this property that you get the recognized text. This string may contain the following special characters:

  • 0x2028 — Line break symbol
  • L’\n’ — Paragraph break symbol
  • 0xFFFC — Object replacement character (denotes an embedded picture inside the text)
  • 0x0009 — Tabulation.
  • 0x005E — Circumflex accent (^), used by ABBYY FineReader Engine as a replacement for unrecognized characters
  • 0x00AC — Soft hyphen
If the paragraph has right-to-left writing direction (like for Hebrew), the text of the paragraph is a string which contains characters of the paragraph in the order they are read. For example, the Hebrew text Hebrew will be returned as the string "Hebrew_backtofront".

Please note, that the recognized text can negligibly differ from the original. Some input symbols can be replaced with a special character. For example, ”…” symbol can be replaced with tabulation. That is why the number of symbols in the recognized text can differ from the original. If you want to get access to the input word with no replaced symbols, use IWord::Text.

Words

Words, read-only

Provides access to the collection of the paragraph words.

In contrast with the Text property, if the paragraph has right-to-left writing direction (like for Hebrew), a word in the paragraph is a string which contains characters of the word from left to right. For example, the Hebrew word Hebrew will be returned as the string "Hebrew".

Lines

ParagraphLines, read-only

Provides access to the collection of the paragraph lines. The property returns a constant object.

Additional paragraph elements

BookmarkCount

int, read-only

Returns the number of bookmarks in the paragraph.

Bookmark

BSTR, read-only

Provides access to the bookmark of any type (technical or user) by its index in the internal collection of the paragraph’s bookmarks. The bookmark accessed via this property contains a prefix in its name.

Hyperlink

Hyperlink, read-only

Returns a reference to the Hyperlink object which describes the hyperlink in the position. If there is no hyperlink, this property is set to 0.

TabPositions

TabPositions, read-only

Provides access to all tab stops in the paragraph.

UserBookmark

BSTR, read-only

Provides access to the user bookmark by its index in the internal collection of the paragraph’s bookmarks. The bookmark accessed via this property does not contain a prefix in its name.

UserBookmarkCount

int, read-only

Returns the number of user bookmarks in the paragraph.

Paragraph attributes

Length

int, read-only

This property contains the number of characters in paragraph. This value is the same as the number of characters in the string received through the Text property.

The paragraph break symbol at the end of the paragraph is included in the Text property and counted in the Length property.

ExtendedParams

ParagraphParams

Provides access to the parameters of the Paragraph object exposed by the ParagraphParams object.

ListParams

ListParams, read-only

Provides access to the parameters of the list to which the paragraph belongs. If the paragraph is not in the list, the IListParams::List property returns NULL.

ParagraphStyle

ParagraphStyle

Provides access to the parameters of the paragraph style. These parameters become accessible only after document synthesis.

The property returns a constant object.

DropCapCharsCount

int

Provides access to the number of characters in the dropped capital of a paragraph. The first DropCapCharsCount symbols of the paragraph are assumed to be dropped capital. This property is not changed when paragraph is edited, so it may be greater than the length of the paragraph.

ColumnNumber

int, read-only

Stores the number of the column to which the character in the position belongs.

Coordinates

Bottom

int, read-only

Stores the coordinate of the bottom border of the paragraph as it is positioned on the image.

This property is not available for the paragraphs of barcodes.

Left

int, read-only

Stores the coordinate of the left border of the paragraph as it is positioned on the image.

This property is not available for the paragraphs of barcodes.

Right

int, read-only

Stores the coordinate of the right border of the paragraph as it is positioned on the image.

This property is not available for the paragraphs of barcodes.

Top

int, read-only

Stores the coordinate of the top border of the paragraph as it is positioned on the image.

This property is not available for the paragraphs of barcodes.

​
Methods

NameDescription
DeleteBookmarkDeletes the specified bookmark of any type (technical or user) from the paragraph.
GetBookmarkRangeDetects the index of the initial character and the length of the string that forms the bookmark by its name.
GetCharParamsProvides access to parameters of a single character.
GetDropCapCharParamsProvides access to the parameters of a paragraph’s dropped capital.
GetHyperlinkRangeAnalyzes a single hyperlink character and detects the index of the initial character and the length of the string that forms the hyperlink.
GetWordRecognitionVariantsReturns a collection of variants of a word’s recognition in the current position inside the text of a paragraph.
InsertInserts a string into the text of the paragraph.
InsertParagraphBreakDivides the paragraph into two parts.
InsertTabInserts a tab stop into the chosen text position.
InsertTextInserts the specified text into the text of the paragraph.
NextGroupFinds the next character in the paragraph for which the selected parameters differ from the character with which the search begins. This method can be used to find all bold or italic words in the paragraph, all uncertainly recognized characters, etc.
RangeReturns a substring from the text of the paragraph.
RemoveDeletes a range from the text of the paragraph.
SetBookmarkSets a user bookmark to a string within a paragraph.
SetCharParamsSets parameters for a group of characters.
SetHyperlinkSets a hyperlink to a string within a paragraph.
Paragraph Object Diagram

​
Output parameter

This object is the output parameter of the following methods:

​
Input parameter

This object is the input parameter of the IndexOf method of the Paragraphs object.

​
Samples

FREngine.IBlock block;
int suspiciousCharsCount = 0;
// Iterates paragraphs of a text block and calculate the number of suspicious characters
FREngine.ITextBlock textBlock = block.GetAsTextBlock();
int paragraphsCount = textBlock.Text.Paragraphs.Count;
for (int iPar = 0; iPar < paragraphsCount; iPar++)
{
 FREngine.IParagraph par = textBlock.Text.Paragraphs[iPar];
 string text = par.Text;
 FREngine.ICharParams charParams = engine.CreateCharParams();
 for (int iChar = 0; iChar < text.Length; iChar++)
 {
  par.GetCharParams(iChar, charParams);
  if (charParams.IsSuspicious)
  {
   suspiciousCharsCount++;
  }
 }
}
The object is used in the following code samples:

​
See also

Paragraphs Working with Text Working with Properties