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Kohulan/DECIMER-Image_Transformer has 417 GitHub stars and 81 forks. GitHot measured +1 stars in 24 hours and +2 in 7 days. Last checked 2026-11-10 01:33 UTC. Last push 2026-10-25.

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DECIMER Image Transformer is a deep-learning-based tool designed for automated recognition of chemical structure images. Leveraging transformer architectures, the model converts chemical images into SMILES strings, enabling the digitization of chemical data from scanned documents, literature, and patents.

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README.md

Original

🧪 DECIMER Image Transformer 🖼️

Deep Learning for Chemical Image Recognition using Efficient-Net V2 + Transformer

DECIMER Logo

License Maintenance GitHub issues GitHub contributors tensorflow Model Card DOI Documentation Status GitHub release PyPI version fury.io


📚 Table of Contents


📝 Abstract

The DECIMER 2.2 project tackles the OCSR (Optical Chemical Structure Recognition) challenge using cutting-edge computational intelligence methods. Our goal? To provide an automated, open-source software solution for chemical image recognition.

We've supercharged DECIMER with Google's TPU (Tensor Processing Unit) to handle datasets of over 1 million images with lightning speed!


💡 Method and Model Changes

🖼️ Image Feature Extraction

Now utilizing EfficientNet-V2 for superior image analysis

🔮 SMILES Prediction

Employing a state-of-the-art transformer model

🚀 Training Enhancements

  1. 📦 TFRecord Files - Lightning-fast data reading
  2. ☁️ Google Cloud Buckets - Efficient cloud storage solution
  3. 🔄 TensorFlow Data Pipeline - Optimized data loading
  4. ⚡ TPU Strategy - Harnessing the power of Google's TPUs

⚙️ Installation

# Create a conda wonderland
conda create --name DECIMER python=3.10.0 -y
conda activate DECIMER

# Equip yourself with DECIMER
pip install decimer

🚀 Usage

from DECIMER import predict_SMILES

# Unleash the power of DECIMER
image_path = "path/to/your/chemical/masterpiece.jpg"
SMILES = predict_SMILES(image_path)
print(f"🎉 Decoded SMILES: {SMILES}")

📥 Models: downloaded on first use

import DECIMER does not download or load anything. The model weights are not part of the pip package; they are downloaded from Zenodo the first time they are needed and cached afterwards:

  • The first predict_SMILES(...) call downloads the printed-structure model (about 300 MB) if it is missing, loads it, and keeps it in memory. Later calls reuse it.
  • The hand-drawn model is only downloaded and loaded by the first predict_SMILES(..., hand_drawn=True) call. (Up to version 2.8.0 both models were downloaded and loaded when DECIMER was imported.)
  • To pay for the download and the loading at a time of your choosing (at the start of a server, or when building an image), call load_models() once. load_models(hand_drawn=True) loads both models, as import DECIMER did before.
import DECIMER

DECIMER.load_models()  # optional: download if missing and load now
SMILES = DECIMER.predict_SMILES("path/to/your/chemical/masterpiece.jpg")

The models are stored in $PYSTOW_HOME/DECIMER-V2/ (~/.data/DECIMER-V2/ by default), where PYSTOW_HOME is read when the models are first needed. A directory that already holds DECIMER_model/ (and, for hand-drawn structures, DECIMER_HandDrawn_model/) is used as it is, without any network access, so an image with pre-installed models works offline:

export PYSTOW_HOME=/opt/decimer-models   # contains DECIMER-V2/DECIMER_model/saved_model.pb, ...

✍️ DECIMER - Hand-drawn Model

🌟 New Feature Alert! 🌟

Our latest model brings the magic of AI to hand-drawn chemical structures!

DOI


📄 Citation

If DECIMER helps your research, please cite:

  1. Rajan K, et al. "DECIMER.ai - An open platform for automated optical chemical structure identification, segmentation and recognition in scientific publications." Nat. Commun. 14, 5045 (2023).
  2. Rajan, K., et al. "DECIMER 1.0: deep learning for chemical image recognition using transformers." J Cheminform 13, 61 (2021).
  3. Rajan, K., et al. "Advancements in hand-drawn chemical structure recognition through an enhanced DECIMER architecture," J Cheminform 16, 78 (2024).

🙏 Acknowledgements

  • A big thank you to Charles Tapley Hoyt for his invaluable contributions!
  • Powered by Google's TPU Research Cloud (TRC)


👨‍🔬 Author: Kohulan


🌐 Project Website

Experience DECIMER in action at decimer.ai, brilliantly implemented by Otto Brinkhaus!


🎓 Maintained by the Kohulan @ Steinbeck Group

Cheminformatics Group

Natural Products Cheminformatics Research Group
Institute for Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry
Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany


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© 2025 Kohulan @ Steinbeck Lab, Friedrich Schiller University Jena

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