How to Write Text on a Image in Windows Using Python Opencv2

This code uses cv2.putText to overlay text on an image. You need NumPy and OpenCV installed.

import numpy as np
import cv2

# Create a black image
img = np.zeros((512,512,3), np.uint8)

# Write some Text

font                   = cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_SIMPLEX
bottomLeftCornerOfText = (10,500)
fontScale              = 1
fontColor              = (255,255,255)
thickness              = 1
lineType               = 2

cv2.putText(img,'Hello World!', 
    bottomLeftCornerOfText, 
    font, 
    fontScale,
    fontColor,
    thickness,
    lineType)

#Display the image
cv2.imshow("img",img)

#Save image
cv2.imwrite("out.jpg", img)

cv2.waitKey(0)

Was CV_FONT_HERSHEY_SIMPLEX in cv(1)? Here's all I have available for cv2 "FONT":

FONT_HERSHEY_COMPLEX
FONT_HERSHEY_COMPLEX_SMALL
FONT_HERSHEY_DUPLEX
FONT_HERSHEY_PLAIN
FONT_HERSHEY_SCRIPT_COMPLEX
FONT_HERSHEY_SCRIPT_SIMPLEX
FONT_HERSHEY_SIMPLEX
FONT_HERSHEY_TRIPLEX
FONT_ITALIC

Dropping the 'CV_' seems to work for me.

cv2.putText(image,"Hello World!!!", (x,y), cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_SIMPLEX, 2, 255)

I had a similar problem. I would suggest using the PIL library in python as it draws the text in any given font, compared to limited fonts in OpenCV. With PIL you can choose any font installed on your system.

from PIL import ImageFont, ImageDraw, Image
import numpy as np
import cv2

image = cv2.imread("lena.png")

# Convert to PIL Image
cv2_im_rgb = cv2.cvtColor(image, cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB)
pil_im = Image.fromarray(cv2_im_rgb)

draw = ImageDraw.Draw(pil_im)

# Choose a font
font = ImageFont.truetype("Roboto-Regular.ttf", 50)

# Draw the text
draw.text((0, 0), "Your Text Here", font=font)

# Save the image
cv2_im_processed = cv2.cvtColor(np.array(pil_im), cv2.COLOR_RGB2BGR)
cv2.imwrite("result.png", cv2_im_processed)

result.png

This is indeed a bit of an annoying problem. For python 2.x.x you use:

cv2.CV_FONT_HERSHEY_SIMPLEX

and for Python 3.x.x:

cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_SIMPLEX

I recommend using a autocomplete environment(pyscripter or scipy for example). If you lookup example code, make sure they use the same version of Python(if they don't make sure you change the code).

I know this is a really old question but i think i have a solution In the newer versions of openCV fonts are repesented by a number like this

    FONT_HERSHEY_SIMPLEX = 0,
    FONT_HERSHEY_PLAIN = 1,
    FONT_HERSHEY_DUPLEX = 2,
    FONT_HERSHEY_COMPLEX = 3,
    FONT_HERSHEY_TRIPLEX = 4,
    FONT_HERSHEY_COMPLEX_SMALL = 5,
    FONT_HERSHEY_SCRIPT_SIMPLEX = 6,
    FONT_HERSHEY_SCRIPT_COMPLEX = 7,
    FONT_ITALIC = 16

so all you have to do is replace the font name with the corresponding number

cv2.putText(image,"Hello World!!!", (x,y), 0, 2, 255)

again i know its an old question but it may help someone in the future

Here's the code with parameter labels

def draw_text(self, frame, text, x, y, color=BGR_COMMON['green'], thickness=1.3, size=0.3,):
    if x is not None and y is not None:
        cv2.putText(
            frame, text, (int(x), int(y)), cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_SIMPLEX, size, color, thickness)

For font name please see another answer in this thread.

Excerpt from answer by @Roeffus

This is indeed a bit of an annoying problem. For python 2.x.x you use:

cv2.CV_FONT_HERSHEY_SIMPLEX and for Python 3.x.x:

cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_SIMPLEX

For more see this

You can use cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_SIMPLEX instead of cv2.CV_FONT_HERSHEY_SIMPLEX in current opencv version

I use python 3 and this code below works fine for me.

import cv2

image = cv2.imread('lena.jpg',1)

font = cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_COMPLEX
cv2.putText(image,'Hello There',(0,100),font,2,(255,255,255),3)  #text,coordinate,font,size of text,color,thickness of font

cv2.imshow('image',image)

cv2.waitKey(0)

cv2.destroyAllWindows()

for the example above the solution would look like this:

import PILasOPENCV as Image
import PILasOPENCV as ImageDraw
import PILasOPENCV as ImageFont
# from PIL import ImageFont, ImageDraw, Image
import numpy as np
import cv2

image = cv2.imread("lena.jpg")

# Convert to PIL Image
cv2_im_rgb = cv2.cvtColor(image, cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB)
pil_im = Image.fromarray(cv2_im_rgb)

draw = ImageDraw.Draw(pil_im)

# Choose a font
font = ImageFont.truetype("Roboto-Regular.ttf", 40)

# Draw the text
draw.text((0, 0), "Your Text Here", font=font)

# Save the image
cv2_im_processed = pil_im.getim()
cv2.imshow("cv2_im_processed", cv2_im_processed)
cv2.waitKey()