title: Separate image of text into component character images
body: <p>I'd like to separate an image of text into it's component characters, also as images. For example, using the sample below I'd end up with 14 images. </p>
  
  <p>I'm only going to be using text on a single line, so the y-height is unimportant - what I need to find is the beginning and end of each letter and crop to those coordinates. That way I would also avoid problems with 'i','j', etc.</p>
  
  <p>I'm new to image processing, and I'm not sure how to go about it. Some form of edge detection? Is there a way to determine contiguous regions of solid colour? Any help is great.</p>
  
  <p>Trying to improve my Python skills and familiarity with some of the many libraries available, so I'm using the <a href="http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/" rel="noreferrer">Python Imaging Library (PIL)</a>, but I've also had a look at OpenCV.</p>
  
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  <p>Sample image:</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://imgur.com/AVW7A.png" alt="This is some text"></p>