Highest-quality OCR on the market. Exceptionally clear interface. Exports to multiple formats. Useful cross-format document-comparison feature.
- Pros
- Cons
Lacks Acrobat's full-text-indexing feature. Some features only in the more-expensive Corporate edition.
- Bottom Line
FineReader 14 maintains this app's status as the best all-round OCR app on the planet. A fully redesigned interface and background-recognition features make it faster and easier to use than the superb previous versions.
For years now, our undisputed Editor's Choice for the best-in-class optical character reading software has been ABBYY FineReader. The revamped latest version, ABBYY FineReader 14, is a top-notch OCR app that adds document-comparison features that you can't find anywhere else and new PDF-editing features that rival the advanced feature set in Adobe Acrobat DC. FineReader 14 is also the best document-comparison productivity app I've ever seen, with the ability to compare documents in two different formats, so you can compare a Word file to a PDF version of the same file and see which of the two has the latest revisions. It's truly terrific.
- $499.99
- $49.95
- $2.99
- $499.99
- $6.99
What You'll Pay
In my writing and editing work, I've relied on ABBYY FineReader for as long as I can remember, and one reason I work mostly in Windows and not on a Mac is that ABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac version is a lot less powerful than ABBYY FineReader 14 for Windows. For this review, I tested the $399.99 ABBYY FineReader 14 Corporate edition. A $199.99 (upgrade price $129.99) Standard version has all the OCR and PDF-editing features of Corporate, but lacks the document-compare component and doesn't include the Hot Folder feature that automatically creates PDF files from documents or images saved to the folder.
For most users, the Standard version will be more than enough, but the document-comparison feature alone may be worth the extra price for the Corporate app. The prices, by the way, are perpetual, with no annoying subscription model like Adobe's required.
Feature Set
You'll typically use an OCR app to convert scanned images of printed text into either an editable Word document or a searchable PDF file. Now that every smartphone takes high-resolution photos, you don't even need a scanner to create images that you can turn into editable documents or PDFs, but your OCR software needs to be able to work with skewed and otherwise irregular photos in addition to high-quality scans. FineReader has always excelled at cleaning up imperfect images, but version 14 seems even more impressive than earlier versions. When I used my phone to take photos of two-page spreads in a book, FineReader effortlessly split the photos into single-page images, unskewed the images so that text lines are horizontal, and recognized the text with often perfect accuracy.
FineReader hides its myriad advanced features behind straightforward beginner-level menus, but the advanced options are easily accessible to advanced users from a toolbar and menu. When you start up the app, it displays a spacious menu listing a half-dozen tasks: viewing and editing an existing PDF file; performing advanced OCR tasks in a PDF file; and converting standard document formats to PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or electronic publication formats, such as ePub and DjVu. Conversion options include the ability to combine multiple files into a single PDF, Word, or Excel file. A second menu lists options to scan to FineReader's OCR Editor or directly to PDF, Word, Excel, or to various other image, document, and publishing formats. A third menu opens FineReader's separate compare-documents app. This menu system is more than enough to achieve most standard OCR and file-conversion tasks, and the Windows 10–style interface is among the clearest I've seen.
Editing Muscle
For basic PDF editing, FineReader has a clearer and more modern interface than Adobe Acrobat, and makes it easier to perform tasks like using a developer certificate to sign a document. FineReader's search feature has conveniences that Adobe doesn't match, such as the ability to highlight or underline all instances of a search string. You can also switch on a convenient redaction mode that lets you blank out any text or region in a document simply by selecting a region with a mouse, clicking, and moving on to the next.
On the other hand, ABBYY doesn't include Acrobat's full-text indexing feature that can make searching almost instantaneous in large documents. FineReader's interface uses the familiar sidebar of thumbnails or bookmarks at the left of a full-size image, but the layout is exceptionally clear, and all icons are labeled. A new background OCR feature means that you can get started editing a PDF before the app has completed its text-recognition operations.
FineReader's unique powers are most evident in its OCR editor, an efficient tool for checking its OCR output and correcting recognition errors. Scanned images of old books, crumpled paper, or marked-up pages are almost certain to produce either outright errors, or readings where the OCR software can't be certain of the original text and makes a best guess of what was on the page. FineReader's OCR editor works like a high-powered spelling checker in a word-processor, quickly trawling through doubtful OCR readings while you confirm or correct each one in turn—and its superb keyboard interface lets you confirm a doubtful reading with one keystroke or correct it with two or three keystrokes, typically selecting the right reading from a list that the program offers. This kind of repetitive work normally strains your hand muscles as you maneuver the mouse, but FineReader's thoughtful design reduces strain to an absolute minimum. One other plus, for many law and government offices that still use WordPerfect for creating documents, FineReader can export OCR output directly to WordPerfect without making you save first in an intermediate format like RTF.
Everything in FineReader seems designed to reduce needless operations. When you install it, it adds a Screenshot Reader app to your taskbar icons. This works like a superpowered version of Windows' built-in Snipping Tool. I use it to capture the text when an on-screen image shows a picture of some text but doesn't let me select the text itself—for example, an image of a page in Google Books or Amazon's Look Inside feature. I start up the Screenshot Reader app, drag the mouse to frame the text I want to capture, and then wait a second or two while FineReader performs OCR on the image and sends the text to the Clipboard. Options in the app let me select a table or simply capture an image to the Clipboard. They also let me send the output directly to Microsoft Word or some other app instead of to the Clipboard. There's nothing else out there that's remotely as powerful and efficient at capturing text from the screen.
The Best OCR
For advanced, high-quality, fine-tuned OCR, FineReader essentially has almost no competition. Adobe Acrobat DC is a PDF-editing powerhouse, with strong OCR features built-in, but it isn't as accurate as FineReader and doesn't offer anything like FineReader's interactive OCR editor.
OmniPage and the enterprise-level OmniPage Professional offer high-powered, automated OCR functions that work well for high-volume operations, but, at least in my limited testing, OmniPage doesn't match FineReader in accuracy or in its OCR-editing interface. The lower-tech ReadIris Pro, bundled with many scanners, doesn't match any of these three in convenience or accuracy. Acrobat, OmniPage, and FineReader leave all other OCR software in the dust. But FineReader, our Editors' Choice, is the only one of the three that you'll want if you need the ultimate in accuracy, convenience, and control.
ABBYY FineReader
Bottom Line: FineReader 14 maintains this app's status as the best all-round OCR app on the planet. A fully redesigned interface and background-recognition features make it faster and easier to use than the superb previous versions.
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Paper hasn't gone away. You've probably noticed that even in the digital era you still have stacks of hard-copy printouts, books, magazines, newspaper clippings, invoices, bills, and other paper that you have to search through by hand, one page at a time. Or you need to get an old essay that you typed or printed years ago into digital format, and you're dreading retyping it. This is where OCR (Optical Character Reading) software becomes more of a necessity than a luxury. OCR creates searchable, editable text from printed documents—and also from photos of printed documents, or PDFs made from scanning old books and papers. The more paper documents you have, the more you need OCR.
When to OCR
You use OCR for two basic functions: archiving documents or repurposing documents. For archiving, you'll typically feed your documents (receipts, business cards, handouts, or anything else) into your scanner and let your OCR software create searchable PDF files that show a scanned image of the original document but also contain—hidden underneath the scanned image—text that you can copy from the PDF and paste into other applications, or that you can search for when you need to find the original.
For repurposing, OCR typically converts a printed table into an Excel spreadsheet, or an old book either into a PDF with searchable text hidden under the page images or into a word-processing document that you can edit and reuse. High-powered OCR software can also convert printed text into HTML files that anyone can view in a browser.
Choosing OCR Software
When you choose an OCR app, you'll want to decide whether you want it to run automatically, interactively, or a combination of both. When an OCR app runs automatically, all you do is click a button, walk away, and come back to find your output files already created. When it runs interactively, you typically use image-enhancement tools to straighten or sharpen an image, layout tools to block out parts of a page that you don't want in the output, and then a proofreading tool to correct any misreadings by the software. With most apps, you can choose between automation and interaction by giving you a set of interactive tools and letting you decide which ones to use. But read or reviews to see how much freedom of choice you get with each individual app.
Behind the Scenes
Behind the interface of every OCR app is built on a character-recognition engine that does the grunt work of converting images into text. The fanciest interface can't make up for the limits of a recognition engine that isn't consistently accurate—and it's no accident that our Editors' Choice products have the strongest available recognition engines.
Featured OCR Software Reviews:
ABBYY FineReader 11 Review
MSRP: $280.00Pros: Powerful, flexible OCR software, smoothly automated for high-volume and hands-off operations, with precision correction tools for difficult tasks. The superb Verification tool makes it easy to correct doubtful readings by comparing OCR text to the original.
Cons: Some advanced options menus could use better explanations.
Bottom Line: The highest-power OCR software on the market, indispensable for anyone who needs fast, accurate text-recognition.
Read ReviewABBYY FineReader Express Edition for Mac Review
MSRP: $99.99Pros: The most accurate OCR engine available, in the simplest possible OCR interface. One-click conversion of scanned images or image files into text, worksheet, HTML, or searchable PDF output.
Cons: No editor inside the app for correcting OCR errors or adjusting images. No support for scanners connected through a wireless network.
Bottom Line: Despite the lack of a built-in editor or image-correction tools, still the best OCR available on the Mac.
Read ReviewAbbyy FineReader Touch (for iPhone) Review
MSRP: $2.99Pros: Lets you image documents and save them to searchable, editable form. Converts saved documents as well. Good overall OCR quality.
Cons: Only for recent iPhones, iPads, and iPods touch. Good OCR quality requires good lighting and document positioning.
Bottom Line: Abbyy FineReader Touch (for iPhone) lets you image documents with an iPhone and save them through the cloud to searchable, editable text.
Read ReviewOmniPage Ultimate Review
MSRP: $499.99Pros: Powerful OCR software with fine-tuned automation for high-volume corporate OCR tasks. Interface includes direct input from Dropbox, SharePoint, and other cloud services. Excellent text-to-speech module.
Cons: Confusing and inconsistent interface.
Bottom Line: Exceptionally high-powered OCR, with a seemingly unlimited range of features, but with a flawed interface.
Read ReviewPrizmo (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $49.95Pros: Flexible, up-to-date app. OCR for photos or scanned images. Captures photos taken from an iPhone or iPod connected to a Mac. Many options for image adjustments. Can extract text from images in any OS X app.
Cons: Comparatively weak OCR engine. Slightly overcomplex and underdocumented workflow.
Bottom Line: Prizmo is a terrific app for performing OCR on iPhone photos, but it has a far less effective OCR engine than ABBYY FineReader Express.
Read Review
- Directly connect the Officejet Pro to a USB port, as opposed to the network. (Your mileage might vary on this.)
- Update the Readiris Pro 14 software to the latest available - as opposed to what you get in the physical retail package. I went through a couple of iterations of updates before one update included support for something approximating well enough my specific Officejet Pro device.
- Ignore some initial pop-up error dialog boxes about problems reading 'defboot.ibt', inability to open a Twain default source, and the scanner not responding. I'm guessing that in my case these error messages resulted from previous unsuccessful attempts to configure the pre-upgrade Readiris software.
- Configure Readiris Pro 14 to use the correct device, _if_ you can recognize it. Expect to struggle with this a bit - apparently end-user sanity preservation in this area is still not a high enough priority.
+ For example, the Officejet Pro 8625 is apparently a member of the 8620 Series for all intents and purposes; selecting the 8600 Series here will only lead you into trouble.
+ If something close to your device doesn't show up on the list, then according to Readiris tech support, 'We do not attempt to have a profile for every scanner model, only those with specific document handling functions. If there is no listing for your model use this Universal setting; HP <other models> Twain or Twain <other models>.' I shudder to contemplate having to use that.
+ Also, according to a response from Readiris tech support, 'The entry that starts with WIA cannot be used on Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8.' Hmmm..so, why o why are 'WIA' entries (whatever WIA means) even offered on Windows 7?
+ It's going to ask you which device (USB or NET) to use _every_ single time you use Readiris, so good luck with that.
Clearly, Readiris Pro 14's user interface is still in need of improvement, but it's not entirely unusable. Perhaps their internal design review process would benefit from additional inputs, such as the following:
1. Add tooltips. For example, if you guess that the ADF checkbox means 'Automatic Document Feeder', then you're doing well, but if you can't guess, you might have a small research project ahead of you.
2. Who would _immediately_ understand that the paper-airplane-icon 'Send' button is what you use to save to a file? Not I.
If Readiris Pro 14 ever gets into the state in which it pops up a dialog box saying that some other process is busy, offering 'Retry' or 'Switch To..' buttons, then you are hosed, wedged, stymied.
You'll have to kill the Readiris process with Windows Task Manager and try again.
- Try to reconfigure.
- Try updating the software.
Good luck. Readiris Pro 14 might work for you, but you'll probably need time and patience.
Believe it or not, some people still print documents on physical pieces of paper. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software takes those printed documents and converts them right back into machine-readable text. We’ve found some of the best free OCR toolsFree vs. Paid OCR Software: Microsoft OneNote and Nuance OmniPage ComparedFree vs. Paid OCR Software: Microsoft OneNote and Nuance OmniPage ComparedOCR scanner software lets you convert text in images or PDFs into editable text documents. Is a free OCR tool like OneNote good enough? Let's find out!Read More and compared them for you here.
No OCR program is perfect, so you’ll have to check the results and fix a few problems. Still, it’s a lot faster than typing the entire document back into the computer. Each of these free OCR software tools has its own strengths. All of them will get the job done.
The Methodology
To compare these tools, I took a screenshot of MakeUseOf’s Privacy page and saved it as a JPG file.
Then, I used that JPG to test out the following OCR services.
However, you could also scan a printed document if that’s what you want to edit.
If you go that route, it’ll work best if the page features common fonts, such as Times New Roman or Arial. Also, make sure the image is right side up before scanning it. Aim for scanned material with a file size of less than 2 MB, too.
Now, let’s dig in!
Google Drive & Google Docs
Google Drive has integrated OCR support. It depends on the same OCR engine that Google uses to scan books and understand text in PDF files.
To get started, save the picture you want to send through the OCR to your computer.
Next, open the Google Drive website and upload your file into the application.
Pro tip: If you’re a Gmail user, you can also attach the scanned document to an email. The attachment features a button that lets you transfer the file to Google Drive without leaving your inbox.
After putting the file in Google Drive, locate it and right click. Then select Open With and choose Google Docs.
Your scanned image then appears as a new, editable text document in Google Docs! Google will keep your original image at the top of the document, and automatically create editable text using OCR below it.
The combination of Google Drive and Google Docs did a pretty good job here. It struggled to understand the web addresses, but that was the case with all the tested tools.
Many free online OCR tools4 Free Online OCR Tools Put to the Ultimate Test4 Free Online OCR Tools Put to the Ultimate TestWith advances in OCR technology, converting text and Images from your scanned PDF document into the editable text formats is easier. We tested a few free online OCR tools so you won't have to.Read More, like Free OCR, limit your uploads. Google Docs is advantageous because it doesn’t have page upload limits.
Microsoft Document Imaging
Microsoft also offers support for OCR, but only for Windows users. Do you use a version of Microsoft Word from 2010 or older? It already has Microsoft Document Imaging.
Otherwise, you need to install SharePoint Designer 2007.
Okay, now before we get too far into this, it’s important to note that you’ll need to have Microsoft Word in order for this OCR method to truly work.
Microsoft Word is not a free program, I know. However, because this OCR method is SO effective, and because access to Word is so easy (go to any library or college campus) I’m making the executive decision to include this in our free OCR tools list anyway.
Moving on…
Install SharePoint by going to this URL. When you click Download, you’ll be presented with some options. Click the SharepointDesigner.exe field and hit Download.
After accepting the software license, choose the Customize option.
Look for the Installation Options tab in the top left of the box on your screen (this should be the default tab the program takes you to). Notice the drop-down menus to the left of many of the options. Live in fsx - zante x.
Find the drop-down menus for Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer, Microsoft Office Shared Features, and Office Tools. Select the Not Available option for all of them. It includes a red X, making it easy to spot.
Expand the section for Office Tools, then locate the Microsoft Office Document Imaging option. Pick the Run All From My Computer option. Be careful not to select the similarly worded Run From My Computer entry on the drop-down instead.
Finally, click the Install Now button. It’s in the bottom right of the dialog box you’ve worked with throughout this installation. (Note: This installation may take a few minutes.)
You’re now ready to use the MODI feature!
The next step is to scan your document or save your image from the web. Then, convert it to a TIFF file.
Microsoft Paint is one example of a free TIFF conversion option. Just open your file in Paint and click Save As. Select Other formats.
Select the TIFF format from the drop-down menu and save the image.
Ocr Software Reviews Comparison
Then, launch MODI on your computer.
Just search your computer for Microsoft Office Document Imaging and open the program.
After that, click File, then Open and find your image document.
Then, click the OCR button on the menu bar.
Once the program finishes the OCR, click the Tools menu and select Send Text to Word.
The program will automatically open a new Word document and paste your OCR text into it.
The result gives you editable text within a program you know well.
Having to download the supplementary software first might feel a bit intimidating. However, the process itself isn’t hard and Microsoft does a better job than Google Drive at recognizing text. For instance, this program had no problem picking up on the website URL for MakeUseOf.com, and it didn’t smush any words together.
One major downside, though is that MODI is not available for Mac computers. If you have a Mac, check out these alternatives.
Download: MDI to TIFF File Converter and SharePoint Designer 2007 (Free for Windows)
OnlineOCR.net
Maybe you’re only getting started with OCR tools and want an extremely straightforward, non-platform-specific option (just like the best online word processorsThe 8 Best Free Online Word ProcessorsThe 8 Best Free Online Word ProcessorsOnline word processors come in all shapes and sizes. Use these select picks to choose the writing tool that's right for you.Read More). A website called OnlineOCR.net meets those needs.
It supports over 40 languages, which is good news if your document contains one other than English.
Feb 26, 2018 - A 1965 Gleaner E displaying its ease of loading for over-the-road hauls. Gleaner combines date from 1923, when the Baldwin brothers of,. Gleaner combine serial numbers. Nov 24, 2016 - Updated 23-11-16. Gleaner Combine Serial Number system from 2010. AGCO Serial Number System.
Free Ocr Software Reviews
Look for the blue Select File button on the left side of your screen. Because you can upload files as large as 15 MB, this service works well for graphic-heavy materials.
After that, use the drop-down list and select your desired output language. Look to the right of that menu and notice there are three choices of file formats. You can select Microsoft Word (which is the route I took), Microsoft Excel, or Plain Text.
The Excel option may be useful when working with a scanned price sheet that includes graphics. It’s also potentially helpful with any other source material that with numbers. OnlineOCR supports documents with tables and columns as well.
After tweaking the options, click the Convert button. Then, download the output file the tool spits out and, voila! Editable text at your fingertips.
This free tool didn’t work as well as the other two here, but since you can use OnlineOCR without registering it’s super convenient and easy. Plus, it did do a half-decent job recognizing the text from my image. It’s a smart choice if you want to try a tool without making commitments or providing information.
Also, this free option allows for converting up to 15 documents per hour. That benefit makes it appropriate for medium-volume OCR tasks.
The Verdict
Each of these programs has its strengths.
- Google Docs can OCR documents without downloading anything to your computer, but you do have to sign up for a free account.
- Microsoft Office Document Imaging is easy enough to use and extremely accurate, but it takes a little bit to install the necessary software.
- OnlineOCR.net is a simple-to-use browser-based tool that doesn’t require registration and supports multiple languages.
With any tool, once you’re done with the OCR processHow to Extract Text From Images (OCR)How to Extract Text From Images (OCR)The best way to extract text from an image is to use optical character recognition (OCR). We show you seven free OCR tools for the job.Read More, you may want to spell-check your documentHow to Spell and Grammar Check in Microsoft WordHow to Spell and Grammar Check in Microsoft WordYou can customize Microsoft Word's built-in spelling and grammar checking tools to meet your needs. You can even use AutoCorrect to speed up your typing.Read More. That’s especially true if you’re just starting out with a tool and don’t know if it’s accurate.
And, depending on your use, you may not even have to OCR documents at all. You can convert a paper book to an ebook without OCRing it, for example.
Which OCR software works best for you? Do you have a different favorite OCR program that we didn’t mention here? Leave a comment and let us know.
Did you know that you could also turn handwriting into text using OCRHow to Convert an Image With Handwriting to Text Using OCRHow to Convert an Image With Handwriting to Text Using OCRTo convert an image of handwritten text into digital text that you can edit and search, you need an OCR (optical character recognition) tool. Try one of these OCR tools to digitize handwriting.Read More? Mac users can use the Image Capture app4 Practical Ways to Use Your Mac's Image Capture App4 Practical Ways to Use Your Mac's Image Capture AppYour Mac's Image Capture app is a quiet but useful tool. Here are some practical uses for Image Capture you must check out.Read More to work with OCR.
Image Credit: nikolay100/Depositphotos
Originally written by Chris Hoffman in March 2012.
Explore more about: Digital Document, OCR, Scanner.
All interesting. I wonder if I need to go to OCR.
When I want text I simply open my pdf document, do ctrl-a, ctrl-c, then ctrl-v into my LibreOffice Writer document. A few format fixes, and I'm good to go.. not even any need to spell-check, since it was copy/paste.wretye5ryabcd.com
This whole article
is OUTdated and useless.
Plus, (see other comments below),
the 'OnlineOCR.net' contains spyware!.Shame on you to publish this crap..
This is very educational! Thank you! I have a low quality scanned PDF files and unfortunately, the free online converters did not work. I came across this software called PDF2XL Enterprise by Cogniview. I tried to convert few of my documents and I’m satisfied with the result. The software has advanced OCR settings you can adjust like tweaking and force dpi which totally improved the character recognition. I would definitely recommend PDF2XL Enterprise to anyone.
it works only when the text of the image is in normal font that is 'times new roman' but fails with other fonts.
is there any software that recognises all the types of fontsThank you Chris Hoffman for your helpful article.
FreeOCR looks just what I'm looking for. Unfortunate to read your note that it has been reported to contain malware. Could you tell us if it is still the case? I see your article was written in 2012. Perhaps the note was a later update? Or could you share how I can find out for myself whether it is still contains malware? Thank you.
My alternative would be to work with Tesseract, but that looks more complicated to install and I read that it is not the most user friendly.
I am trying to get the ability to edit PDF documents and convert PDF to Excel or word. I work in a medical office and every site or option I find ends up being blocked by the administrator. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Tx Michelle
To Open PDF's in DOCS, see my first post.
Drive instructions are beyond outdated. Here is how it is done these days.
To open PDF in Drive:
--Open Drive,
-----Select Settings (gear icon far right-top),
-------Select Settings again,
---------Click 'Convert uploaded files to Gooogle Docs format'.Now only imported files will open. PDF's that were already in Drive will need to be 'Uploaded' from the Drive folder to the Drive folder. Basically, any files already there need to be selected and 'Downloaded'
This goes for all Office files as well as PDF's.Should say, To open PDF in 'DOCS'.
You can visit inFORM decision to find which is the best for you. My company also choose this web. That is so fancy!
The free OCR tools you suggest are great for me. I heard of them before, but I did not use it. I am using Yunmai Document Recognition, a document reader developed by Yunmai Technology. It enables scanned documents and images to be transformed into searchable and editable document formats. It is able to extract the text from an image of a document, and then save it as text file. This software is a demo of Yunmai Document Recognition OCR SDK.
I use GTText also. It is quite accurate. You just contr+V any image, select region and its copied. Pretty awesome.
Hello Chris,
Thanks you for sharing a great online tool in this post. Free tools have their own features, but that are negative points too. Free online converter store your PDF file on their sever (your pdf file could be have some personal information).
Personally I would like to share a tool here i.e. 'PDFWARE Image to PDF Converter'. This software has many options to add Images in a PDF document. It convert all types of Images into pdf document. I will recommend it to other user.
Best Regards
Hi, Chris!
Could you tell me the name of the best freeware for printing searchable PDFs?
Thanks.
Tesseract via sourceforge.net for the win.
Thanks for the 'Google Doc'-tip. It took me a lot of time to find the best solution. Google Docs keeps the formatting of the document, which saves me a lot of time. Thanks!
Hey bro - as a reviewer you should take the time to review the product EULA and data / security policies.
These are at least as important as the features offered.I did not appreciate the spyware packaged with your recommendation (FreeOCR), or the agreement that would allow collection and use of personal data.
You should have mentioned these negatives. No prize for this review.
GT Text is also very good.
It supports Chinese (just downloading the language in preferences)
Japanese and a myriad of languages
[Broken Link Removed]I like to professionally use OCR (50 pages/day), but i don't like to spend thousands of dollars; what is a good program to buy? Is Omnipage the best option?
Thanks, Frank
I need a program to scan & read handwritten and digital text, convert it to pdf, searchable and networkable.
Not sure whether Google Docs ever had this same limitation, but Google Drive (which it appears Google plans to eventually replace Google Docs with) limits its OCR'ing of any PDF you upload to just the first ten pages. The 2 MB file size limit also still applies, but this ten-page limit is even more restrictive.
However it's good they still don't restrict the number of documents you upload. As a result, you can still OCR an arbitrarily large number of pages for free on Google Drive -- ten pages at a time.
Hi Chris Hoffman,
I like Cuneiform OpenOCR,
but Cuneiform OpenOCR is not support to do OCR on PDF files
do you know how to make coneiform openocr to do ocr on pdf files?
thanksThe OCR tools seems to be great.
I use ocr a lot and have tried almost every free option out there. For straight forward text they handle just fine, but send through complex layouts and expect to spend hours editing. Recently I forked out for the premium Omnipage, and although I am now broke, I have to admit that the program makes everything else look inefficient. Simple pages are ocr-ed in seconds and are perfect. Complex layouts take a little longer because you need to define graphic, text and table areas, but the results are near perfect. I am not saying that the options mentioned here can't do the job, but if you have big projects in need of ocr, or ocr documents regularly, then save the headache and pay for the master!
Does OmniPage read handwritten text?
Does OminPage read handwritten text?
What? No OneNote? It OCRs all pasted pictures by default, so you can easily find them. I don't use Evernote but expect it to be similar.
I use ABBYY Finereader Sprint free version - works fine for home/personal use.
Hi! I also use Sprint but, probably, for big projects with a lot of formatting and complex layout I need a full product that will save the original structure and convert pdf. Not sure what product to buy, do you know if I can upgrade from Sprint (and if it is cheaper) to complete version of finereader ?
Google Docs while not having a page limit does have:
Sorry, this file is too big. We can only convert files up to 2 MB in size.
:(Does it support chinese ?