What is OCR? Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is the process of scanning and interpreting a photograph or image so it can be converted to text. But there’s a lot more at play than that. You’ll need to know what type of ocr software you should choose for your specific needs, what features you want and which ones you need, as well as how to use it. Lucky for you, we’ve done the research and come up many options for you–below–to take advantage of.
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Adobe Acrobat Pro DC
Best overall OCR software for complete PDF solutions ($14.99 per month).
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is an OCR software that helps you extract text and convert scanned documents into editable PDF files.
It provides a complete PDF solution for any device. This means you can create and edit smart PDFs and convert PDF files to Microsoft Office formats and JPG. You can also share PDFs, sign PDFs, and print or compress directly from Pro DC.
Adobe also recognizes your text and matches your font – and finally converts the PDF into that particular font.
Besides, the OCR tool offers multiple editing features, including text recognition, add comments, page reorder, combine files, etc. You can also perform functions like rotate, delete, or crop pages.
You can even install its Acrobat Reader mobile app to delete, reorder, insert, or rate PDF pages directly from your smartphone. Then there’s an Adobe Scan app to help you scan documents, receipts, whiteboards, and more to PDF.
Plus, you can customize files by reusing multiple PDF pages from different files. It also lets you add form fields and links in your PDF files.
Additionally, Pro DC provides helps you share files in a protected format for comments and comparison. It also lets you remove passwords from protected PDFs and collect feedback from multiple people in one file.
Key Features:
- Split PDFs – Its PDF splitter helps you separate multiple PDFs files into different documents by specifying file size, number of pages, or top-level bookmarks.
- Sign – Request signature on documents from others and add your own sign. You can also transform physical forms into fillable PDF forms instantly through scanning.
- ISO Standards – Convert PDFs into compliant files by using a wizard or profile. You can also validate PDFs against PDF/X, PDF/VT, PDF/A, or PDF/E criteria.
Pros:
- Part of Adobe, which integrates well with their photo editing software, photo management tools, and graphic design software.
- Leverage Action Wizard to customize and create PDFs while saving keystrokes and time.
- Verify PDF’s accessibility using Accessibility Checker.
- Automatically scan texts from the paper and convert them into editable documents.
- Compress PDF files with an optimized PDF online tool without losing quality for easy storage and management.
- Convert PDF into multiple formats, including PNG, TIFF, or JPEG.
- 7-day free trial.
Pricing:
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC costs $14.99 per month. You can also use Acrobat Standard DC at $12.99 per month to create, edit, and sign PDFs.
OmniPage Ultimate
If you take your OCR scanning seriously – if it’s a crucial cog in the machinery of your business – then give OmniPage Ultimate a look. It’s packed with features above and beyond what you might expect, and while the price is relatively high, it still falls in the affordable bracket for most small businesses.
Put down your cash and you can convert paper documents from virtually any scanner source into just about any kind of digital file you like – and everything works super-fast too. If you’ve got stacks of paper to get through, the time saved by OmniPage Ultimate can really start to add up.
Known for its accuracy in conversion, this software is trusted by some of the biggest names in business – including Amazon, Ford, and GE – and lets you build up custom workflows so your documents get automatically delivered to the right place in the right format, depending on your needs.
OmniPage Ultimate offers comprehensive features or you can opt for Omnipage Standard which is available for about half the price, though it doesn’t include as many input, output and workflow options, but it still offers more than enough in the way of features for most users needing an OCR solution.
OCR Using Microsoft OneNote
Microsoft OneNote has advanced OCR functionality, which works on both pictures and handwritten notes.
- Drag a scan or a saved picture into OneNote. You can also use OneNote to clip part of the screen or an image into OneNote.
- Right-click on the inserted picture and select Copy Text from Picture. The copied optically recognized text goes into the clipboard, and you can now paste it back into OneNote or into any program like Word or Notepad.
OneNote can also extract text from a multipage printout with one click. Insert a multiple page printout in OneNote and then right-click on the currently selected page.
- Click Copy Text from this Page of the Printout to grab text from this selected page only.
- Click Copy Text from All the Pages of the Printout to copy text from all the pages in one shot, as you can see below.
Do note that the accuracy of the OCR depends on the quality of the photo, too. That’s why optically recognizing handwriting is still a bit fuzzy for OneNote and other OCR software in the market. That said, it is one of the key features in OneNote you should use at every opportunity.
Nanonets
Nanonets is an AI-based OCR software that automates data capture for intelligent document processing of invoices, receipts, ID cards and more. Nanonets uses advanced OCR, machine learning image processing, and Deep Learning to extract relevant information from unstructured data. It is fast, accurate, easy to use, allows users to build custom OCR models from scratch and has some neat Zapier integrations. Digitize documents, extract data-fields, and integrate with your everyday apps via APIs in a simple, intuitive interface.
How does Nanonets stand apart as an OCR software?
Pros:
- Modern UI
- Handles large volumes of documents
- Reasonably priced
- Ease of use
- Cognitive capture of data – resulting in minimal intervention
- Requires no in-house team of developers
- Algorithm/models can be trained/retrained
- Great documentation & support
- Lots of customization options
- Wide choice of integration options
- Works with non-English or multiple languages
- Almost no post-processing required
- Seamless 2-way integration with multiple accounting software
- Great API for developers
Cons:
- Can’t handle very high volume spikes
- Table capture UI can be better
OmniPage Ultimate by Kofax
Omnipage Ultimate is an optical character recognition (OCR) application that can help you turn paper, PDFs, and images into digital files. Basically, it transforms forms and PDF files into editable documents that you can edit, archive, and share. However, the software only supports the Windows system, so you can’t use it on your Mac.
Besides, the OCR software enables you to send converted PDF files automatically to pre-programmed workflows. And its eDiscovery Assistant helps you convert both single and batches of PDF files into searchable files.
Additionally, Omnipage offers digital camera equivalent OCR accuracy and reproduces documents into multiple formats. It also helps you schedule a large number of files for batch processing right from emails or folders. All this happens with undocumented automation to ensure real-time processing of documents.
Integration with all types of scanners, including mobile scanners, also comes in handy to process documents.
Key Features:
- Mobile Document Capture – It helps you capture text from a smartphone camera to convert pictures into texts.
- Language Recognition – It supports over 120 languages to help you edit, process, and store documents practically from any part of the world.
- OmniPage Server – Use the OmniPage Server for faster processing of documents for data analysis and archival needs. You can use it to process massive loads of documents regularly.
Pros:
- It offers support for an extensive range of formats, including Microsoft Office, PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Corel WordPerfect, HTML, ePub, etc.
- Scan documents to any format and route anywhere on the network.
- Leverage Amazon Kindle Recognition to send converted documents directly to the eBook reader.
- Execute recurring jobs more accurately by creating your own workflows.
- The tool maintains the formatting of original documents.
- Integrate OCR functions into apps to support operating systems virtually for computers and smartphones.
Pricing:
OmniPage Ultimate comes at a one-time cost of $499. Initially, you also get a 15-day free trial to get familiar with the OCR software.
Conclusion:
These days, the demand for document scanning and image digitization services has reached a critical high. The reason behind this rising trend is obvious: to get data copied and converted into computer-readable digital formats.