OCR Software Comparison Guide

There are several OCR software solutions available to convert scanned images to text, Word, Excel, HTML or searchable PDF. The differences between them can often be obscure, leaving many to wonder why some OCR software cost about $100 while others cost $500 or more.

The main features that differentiate OCR software are:

- Character recognition accuracy
- Page layout reconstruction accuracy
- Multi-engine voting technology
- Support for languages
- Support for searchable PDF output
- Speed
- User interface
- Special features for niche projects

Because of the infinite combinations of document types, OCR engines, project requirements and settings, it may be possible that one engine may perform better with your particular documents than another. For this reason, ScanStore provides demo downloads for all its OCR software with your ScanStore User Account.  Because of this variability and the subjectivity of user interface preferences, we recommend using the demos to see which performs best with your documents.

  
  

OCR software

ABBYY FineReader 10 Professional

FineReader Professional is a highly accurate and easy to use OCR software that includes host of features including digital camera OCR, intelligent document layouts, image enhancement, barcode recognition and command line integration.  FineReader is our pick for OCR software because its document layout retention will save you much time in reformatting documents you convert for editing.

ABBYY FineReader 9 Corporate

FineReader Corporate Edition offers unique concurrent licensing that makes it possible for many users who need occasional use of OCR to share a small pool of active licenses.  With accuracy comparable to OmniPage, superior technical support services and a user interface that many users find preferable, we think FineReader Corporate is the best choice of OCR software for business

IRIS ReadIRIS Pro 12

Affordable OCR software for business and home users.  ReadIRIS Pro provides a very accurate OCR recognition rate at a low cost, but still has some of the advanced features that higher priced professional OCR software includes.  The main limitation is that the Pro version is limited to documents under 50 pages.

IRIS ReadIRIS Corporate 12

Adds support for files over 50 pages, business card recognition, as well as automatic processing of hot folders.

Nuance OmniPage Pro 17

OmniPage was considered the fastest, most accurate and fully featured OCR software for a long time, though FineReader has surpassed it in the latest versions.  OmniPage 17 Professional has a unique new feature that lets you convert any type of document to searchable PDF or Word.

OmniPage does not have a downloadable demo. Nuance also does not provide free technical support after the first call.  For these reasons we recommend the ABBYY and IRIS products instead.

Arabic, Farsi & Hebrew OCR software

IRIS ReadIRIS Pro 11 Middle East

OCR software with support for Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew character recognition.

IRIS ReadIRIS Corporate 11 Middle East

Adds the ability to recognize files over 50 pages, business cards and monitor a hot folder to automatically process images in the background.

IRISDocument Arabic Language Pack

Enables Arabic and Farsi character recognition in a server-based OCR software.

ABBYY FineReader 10 Professional

FineReader Professional 10 supports Hebrew OCR, but does not include Arabic or Farsi support.

ABBYY FineReader 9 Corporate

FineReader Corporate also includes Hebrew character recognition.

ABBYY Recognition Server

Add 30% to the cost of the Recognition Server license to add Hebrew language character recognition support.

Personal OCR Software

ABBYY FineReader Express

ABBYY FineReader Express gives you the accurate FineReader engine in a low-cost, easy to use package.  The one-click conversion feature instantly turns paper documents into various electronic formats, including MS Word, Excel, Outlook attachments and searchable PDF-without ever leaving the applications.  Does not support custom zone layouts, batch processing and other advanced features you get with Professional or Corporate versions.

Nuance TextBridge

The classic TextBridge engine is still available as an affordable alternative to high priced engines.  It gives you an ultra-low cost, yet still accurate OCR software with out all the extra features.  Allows you to output to web pages, Word documents and more while retaining the layout of the page, but does not include PDF output.
**NOT Compatible with Windows Vista**

SimpleOCR

Our own freeware OCR application provides acceptable accuracy for those who just need to convert a few pages and can't justify the cost of commercial OCR software.  Developers can use the command-line and SDK versions to integrate SimpleOCR with their custom applications.

Server-Based OCR software

ABBYY Recognition Server

Innovative server-based OCR software for performing centralized enterprise-wide OCR processing.  Processor license allows anyone on the network to submit files for OCR.  Complex XML job specifications can be submitted to control output.  Support available for Arabic and Asian languages.

IRISDocument Server

IRISDocument Server is a lower cost solution compared to recognition server, but lacks some of the more advanced features and has slightly lower accuracy.

Several versions are available with varying monthly page processing limitations, letting you scale your solution to meet your budget requirements. Asian, Arabic and Hebrew language packs are also available.

Apple MAC OCR software

ABBYY FineReader Express for MAC

ABBYY FineReader Express is an easy to use OCR software for creating editable and searchable files from scanned documents, PDFs and digital camera images. The one-click conversion feature instantly turns paper documents into various electronic formats, including MS Word, Excel, Outlook attachments and searchable PDF.

Nuance OmniPage X for MAC

OmniPage OCR software for Macintosh users.  This version does not use the latest OmniPage engine, but provides good accuracy nonetheless.  Once again, Nuance does not make a demo download available.

IRIS ReadIRIS Pro 11 for MAC

Affordable OCR software for Macintosh users using the latest version of the IRIS OCR engine.

IRIS ReadIRIS Corporate 11 for MAC

Adds support for files over 50 pages, business card recognition, as well as automatic processing of hot folders.

Chinese, Japanese, Korean & Thai

OCR software

ABBYY FineReader 10 Professional

FineReader Professional 10 now includes Chinese, Japanese and Thai languages in their base package. No special version or add-on is required.

ABBYY FineReader 9 Corporate

FineReader Corporate also includes Chinese, Japanese and Thai character recognition.

IRIS ReadIRIS Pro 11 Asian

OCR software with support for Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and Korean characters.

IRIS ReadIRIS Corporate 11 Asian

Adds the ability to recognize files over 50 pages, business cards and monitor a hot folder to automatically process images in the background.

IRISDocument Server Asian Language

Enables Chinese, Japanese and Korean character recognition in a server-based solution.

ABBYY Recognition Server

Add 30% to the cost of the Recognition Server license to add Chinese, Japanese & Korean (CJK) language support.  Thai character recognition language pack is also available, but is sold separately from CJK.