Tessera

Tessera is a free, open-source SDK that reads, validates, and generates the data in the MRZ (machine-readable zone) of passports, ID cards, and visas. It runs on Android, iOS, and the JVM. It reports what it read and checked; your app decides what to do with that.

It is for developers adding document reading to apps or backends. Documentation: Start here.

Common tasks

• Ready-made scanner screen. Android: Read your first MRZ on Android with the ready-made screen. iOS: Read your first MRZ on iOS with the ready-made screen.
• Camera behind your own UI. Android: Read your first MRZ on Android with the headless camera. iOS: Read your first MRZ on iOS with the headless camera.
• Parse an MRZ string. JVM and Kotlin: Read your first MRZ on the JVM. iOS: Parse an MRZ string on iOS.
• Read an MRZ from a saved photo. Android: Read an MRZ from a saved image on Android. iOS: Read an MRZ from a saved image on iOS.
• Generate test MRZ data. Kotlin: Generate an MRZ in Kotlin.

What works where

✓ yes, ◐ partial, ✗ no, n/a not applicable. All rows: Capability matrix.

Capability	JVM	Android	iOS
Parse and read fields	✓	✓	◐
Validate and check digits	✓	✓	◐
Generate an MRZ	✓	✓	◐
Transliterate names	✓	✓	✓
Live camera, no UI	n/a	✓	◐
Saved image	◐	✓	✓
Ready-made scanner screen	n/a	✓	✓
Diagnostic events	✓	✓	◐

Install

Release 0.5.3. Minimums: minSdk 23, iOS 18, Java 21. Modules: Choose your pieces.

build.gradle.kts (the JVM needs only the first two lines):

dependencies {
    implementation(platform("io.lightine.tessera:tessera-bom:0.5.3"))
    implementation("io.lightine.tessera:tessera-mrz-core")
    implementation("io.lightine.tessera:tessera-mrz-camera-android")
    implementation("io.lightine.tessera:tessera-mrz-camera-ui-android")
}

pom.xml (JVM, Maven):

<dependencyManagement>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.lightine.tessera</groupId>
            <artifactId>tessera-bom</artifactId>
            <version>0.5.3</version>
            <type>pom</type>
            <scope>import</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>
<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>io.lightine.tessera</groupId>
        <artifactId>tessera-mrz-core</artifactId>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

Package.swift (iOS):

.package(url: "https://github.com/lightine-io/tessera-swift", exact: "0.5.3"),
.product(name: "Tessera", package: "tessera-swift"),
.product(name: "TesseraUI", package: "tessera-swift"),

Go further

Tutorials · How-to guides · Reference · Explanation. Changes per release: CHANGELOG.md.

Questions and bugs: GitHub issues. Vulnerabilities: report privately, see SECURITY.md. To contribute: CONTRIBUTING.md. Licence: Apache License 2.0 (LICENSE).