The Definitive Node.js SDK for National ID Data Extraction

Why National ID OCR is Difficult

Standard OCR tools like Tesseract fail on real-world ID documents due to their variability. Glare from holographic overlays, shadows from poor lighting, and skewed or rotated images from mobile captures consistently degrade accuracy. Parsing the Machine-Readable Zone (MRZ) requires not just reading characters, but also validating complex checksums. Furthermore, the layout and security features of National IDs differ significantly across jurisdictions, requiring a constantly updated and fragile set of RegEx patterns for each country. This high maintenance overhead and low reliability make generic OCR unsuitable for production-grade KYC systems.

Enterprise-Grade Extraction with StructOCR

StructOCR replaces brittle, open-source OCR pipelines with a specialized API for robust id card parsing. Our system leverages pre-trained deep learning models, specifically fine-tuned on millions of global identity documents, to locate and interpret data fields, facilitating kyc automation. Unlike Tesseract, our API includes automatic image pre-processing. It performs perspective correction (deskewing), glare removal, and denoising before extraction, ensuring high accuracy even with sub-optimal mobile captures. The result is a standardized, validated JSON output, abstracting away the complexity of parsing different ID layouts.

Production Use Cases

• Digital Onboarding (KYC): Reduce drop-off rates by pre-filling user data from National IDs in < 2 seconds.
• Fraud Prevention: Detect tampered fonts or mismatched MRZ checksums automatically.
• Global Compliance: Handle National IDs from 200+ jurisdictions without custom rules.

Implementation: Node.js SDK

The official Node.js SDK abstracts the complexity of file handling and API requests. It automatically parses region-specific fields like CNP (Romania) or CPF (Brazil).

Prerequisite: npm install structocr

const StructOCR = require('structocr');

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// 👉 https://structocr.com/register
// Initialize the client with your API key
const client = new StructOCR('YOUR_API_KEY_HERE');

async function scanNationalId() {
  // Note: Supports JPG, PNG, WebP
  const imagePath = './id_card.jpg';

  try {
    console.log(`Scanning National ID: ${imagePath}...`);

    // The SDK handles file reading and the API call
    const result = await client.scanNationalId(imagePath);

    if (result.success && result.data) {
      const data = result.data;
      console.log('✅ Extraction Successful!');
      
      console.log(`Region:     ${data.country_code} (Series: ${data.card_series})`);
      console.log(`Name:       ${data.given_names} ${data.surname}`);
      console.log(`ID Number:  ${data.document_number}`);
      
      // Specialized field for National Identity Numbers (CNP, CPF, NIN)
      console.log(`Personal #: ${data.personal_number}`);
      
      console.log(`DOB:        ${data.date_of_birth} (${data.sex})`);
      console.log(`Address:    ${data.address}`);

      // Print Raw MRZ if available
      if (data.additional_fields && data.additional_fields.mrz_line_1) {
        console.log(`MRZ Line 1: ${data.additional_fields.mrz_line_1}`);
        console.log(`MRZ Line 2: ${data.additional_fields.mrz_line_2}`);
      }

    } else {
      console.error('❌ Extraction Failed:', result.error || 'Unknown Error');
    }
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('An unexpected error occurred:', error.message);
  }
}

scanNationalId();

Sample JSON Output

StructOCR returns a normalized JSON object containing both Visual Zone (VIZ) extraction and raw Machine-Readable Zone (MRZ) lines.

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "type": "national_id",
    "country_code": "ROU",
    "nationality": "ROMANA",
    "document_number": "123456",
    "card_series": "KS",
    "personal_number": "1920319123456",
    "surname": "POPESCU",
    "given_names": "ANDREI",
    "sex": "M",
    "date_of_birth": "1992-03-19",
    "place_of_birth": "Jud. CS Mun. Reșița",
    "address": "Jud. CS Orș. Bocșa Str. Nucilor Nr. 15",
    "date_of_issue": "2020-05-10",
    "date_of_expiry": "2030-05-10",
    "issuing_authority": "SPCLEP Bocșa",
    "additional_fields": {
      "phone_number": null,
      "tramite_number": null,
      "ejemplar": null,
      "mrz_line_1": "IDROU123456<0<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<",
      "mrz_line_2": "9203195M3005108ROU19203191234562",
      "mrz_line_3": null
    }
  }
}