OCR - or in other words, optical character recognition - software allows users to easily convert pictures into the text. You can use the same software to convert handwriting into the text as well. What OCR software actually does is that it analyses a given document, and then it compares it with the already stored fonts in the database. The best part about using OCR software is that it will run the document through a spell checker as well to recognize words that are unrecognizable. The software won't guarantee
100% accuracy; however, it focuses on the close approximation.
100% accuracy; however, it focuses on the close approximation.
OCR software can become quite productive for office workers, researchers, and even students. Since we are talking about OCR, let's get to know about the best OCR software that you can go for.
The first one that we have is Wondershare PDFelement Pro. This all-in-one tool has advanced OCR functionality. And it works on both handwritten notes and images.
Here's how you need to perform OCR using Wondershare PDFelement Pro:
- First, download the software on your computer/laptop. Launch the software. You will see an Open File option; click on that. By clicking the open file option, you will be able to upload the document that you want to work on.
- Once the document gets uploaded, you will be notified to perform OCR on the scanned document. Click on the perform OCR option and the language source.
- After the OCR process is completed, now you are all set to edit the document just the way you want. Click on the edit tab to see the wide range of editing options.
- Don't forget to save your document after editing the file and performing OCR; otherwise, your changes will not be saved.
- Readers may note that the accuracy of the OCR will also depend on the quality of the scanned document.
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2. SimpleOCR
SimpleOCR offers a 14-days free trial for handwriting recognition; however, if you want to perform OCR on machine print, there won't be any limitation. Even though the software looks outdated, you can still try it because it is easy to use.
The best way to use it is to set it up to read directly and connect it with your scanner to start adding the pages to perform OCR.
This software will let you convert through images selection, text selection, and it comes along with text ignore features as well.
The tool has a built-in spell-checker, which will let you correct any wrong spelling as well.
Once you are done converting, you can save it in TXT or DOC format.
SimpleOCR works well with normal text, but if you are thinking of doing multi-column layouts, it won't be very pleasant.
3. Photo Scan
Photo Scan is easy to use the free tool. You can download it for free from the Microsoft Store. This OCR tool is created by Define Studios. There are some in-app purchases, but that doesn't mean that the basic functionalities will not work. This one is a QR code reader, and OCR scanner clubbed into one.
All you need to do to start using the app is point this app towards any file or image. Not just this, if you have a webcam, you can use to give it an image to gander at. The main highlight of this app is the text to speech feature. We recommend switching on the speaker icon to allow the software to read out the document that it just scanned.
The main disadvantage of this software is that it doesn't work correctly with handwritten texts; however, printed text recognition is on par. Once you are done performing OCR, you can easily save the document in multiple formats, such as log format, XML, Rich Text, HTML, Text, and more.
4. (A9t9) Free OCR Window App
If you are looking for a free OCR software that will work on any Windows device, you can think of getting (a9t9) Free OCR Windows App. This app has an online OCR equivalent, and it is powered by the same API, which makes this tool easy to use.
The good thing about this tool is that it supports around 21 languages for converting PDF to text and parsing the images. Another advantage is that it is free to use the tool, and if you buy anything from the in-app purchases, all the ads will be removed. Just like any other free OCR tool, this one also works the best with printed documents. But for handwritten text, this tool will not be an ideal contender.
5. Capture2Text
If you are using Windows 10, then here's a free OCR tool for you that will allow you to give a keyword shortcut, so that you can perform OCR on the go on anything on the screen. We are talking about Capture2Text. The good thing about this tool is that you don't need to install any software.
To activate OCR on your computer, you need to use the shortcut WinKey + Q. Once done, move the mouse on any text or image to select the part which you want to capture. Once done, you will see a pop-up window with the captured, as well as converted text.
The biggest advantage of using Capture2Text is that it uses Google's OCR engine. Another benefit you ask, it supports more than 100 languages. With the help of Google Translate, the tool gets to convert the captured text into multiple languages easily. There will be a setting option available for you. Use it to tweak the text.
6. Easy Screen OCR
Some OCR software is not free. However, this software, which is Easy Screen OCR, can be used for free up to 20 times, and you don't need a subscription for that as well. This software works from the taskbar, else from the system tray. All you need to do to use it is right-click on the Easy Screen OCR. After that, you need to select the capture option, which you will find on the menu bar. Once done, take a screenshot of the document, video, website, or the image just by dragging the mouse cursor.
This tool supports over 100 languages, and you can even set the recognition language to perform OCR as well.
7. OCR with Google Docs
Just in case you are not close by your computer, here's another way to perform OCR. Google Drive lets you perform OCR too since it has a built-in OCR program. The OCR can easily recognize text in PDF, GIF, PNG, and JPEG. However, make sure that the document you are uploading is less than 2 MB. And for text, the pixels should be ten or more. Another feature of Google Drive that you will like is the auto-detect language feature; however, if you are using it on non-Latin characters, the experience might not be that great.