Optical Character Recognition
During your foray into the world of document scanning, you’ve likely encountered the term “OCR” and may even know that it stands for “Optical Character Recognition“. But what exactly is OCR and how can you make the best use of this sophisticated and valuable tool?
We’re here to give you a run-down of what you need to know about Optical Character Recognition, answer any questions you might have, and recommend the best OCR software solution for your scanning project. Let’s begin!
What is OCR?
The primary purpose of Optical Character Recognition is to quickly and automatically recognize and convert images of machine-printed or typed text into actual electronic data that users can organize, search, and modify. In general, an OCR engine analyzes the pixel data of scanned images and searches for patterns resembling letters, numbers, and other symbols to create a digitized record of characters. While the exact mechanics of this process can be complicated, OCR engines ultimately enable users to easily and effectively perform a wide array of functions such as information entry, processing, categorization, retrieval, and analysis.
Applications of OCR
Optical Character Recognition employs robust technology to digitally convert, recognize, and manage scanned paper and machine-readable documents promptly and accurately. Such reliable OCR capabilities power vital systems, facilitate essential services, improve routine operations, and promote overall efficiency. Two significant methods of such Optical Character Recognition are:
Full Page OCR – Converts the entire page into one of the following formats:
- Plain Text – Basic text information on the page is retained in a consecutive order.
- Formatted Text – Text information is retained in consecutive paragraphs while saving font size and style. This can also preserve tables in a tabular format, such as spreadsheets.
- Exact Copy – All information on the page is retained, including graphics, and placed on the page in the manner that most closely recreates the original document.
- Searchable File – Text information is retained on a hidden layer behind the scanned image, allowing the file’s contents to be searched while retaining the appearance of the original.
Zone OCR – Recognizes document structure and identifies fields of text located on defined fields of the page. This zonal method is often applied for the purpose of indexing and document management. Detailed information can be distinguished and utilized to perform numerous functions, such as saving specific metadata to particular locations, archiving strings of text into organized formats like databases, automating the population of information and processes, and more.
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Levels of OCR Software
OCR Software comes in many different types, which vary in price range based on their features, speed, and accuracy. For instance, you can get a freeware such as SimpleOCR that will serve in a pinch, but it will only be able to convert BMP, JPG, and TIF images of English or French text into plain text documents of TXT or DOC format, one page at a time.
On the other hand, you can invest a few hundred dollars in a Batch OCR or even Server OCR software that will be able to watch particular folders for incoming documents in a variety of image formats and languages, then automatically recreate exact copies of all of the pages therein in a format of choice.
You can also find Desktop OCR software, which will bridge the price gap and include many of the features of the Corporate editions but still require some user input during conversion.
For more information check out:
Improving Accuracy
Although some OCR engines are better than others, no software can guarantee 100% accuracy. This is because there are other factors in play, including scan quality. Recognition software will not be able to do its work if the scanner is not properly digitizing the page.
It is recommended to scan at a resolution of 300dpi for best results. Black & White (Bitonal) is preferred over Greyscale or Color modes, and although most modern scanners are fairly well configured out of the box, you may want to adjust your Brightness and Contrast settings for your particular documents.
If you do not have a scanner that has the necessary speed, quality, or other features that you require to scan your documents, you can always find a large selection of document scanners at ScanStore! ScanStore even has a handy scanners guide to help you find the perfect scanner for your specific requirements and price range.
For more on improving OCR accuracy check out these articles:
Limitations of OCR
OCR software is also limited in what it is able to recognize. Most OCR software are only designed to recognize machine printed text, as opposed to handwriting. While there are ICR software that can recognize handwritten information, they tend to be enterprise level solutions for forms processing work, rather than full page recognition.
Similarly, most OCR software are only able to convert traditional machine fonts, not cursive scripts or calligraphy. There are many fonts out there, and OCR engines depend on common, separated letter shapes to recognize the text, so fonts that are unusual or flow together will not be recognized.
OCR Software Guide
There are several OCR (Optical Character Recognition) 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 under $100 while others cost $500 or more.
The main features that differentiate OCR software are:
- Character recognition accuracy
- Page layout reconstruction accuracy
- Support for languages
- User interface design
- Output file formats (Word, Excel, PDF, eBook, etc.)
- OCR speed and support for multi-core CPUs
- Batch processing modes
- Advanced PDF encryption or compression
- Special features for niche projects
Because of the infinite combinations of document types, OCR engines, project requirements and special features, it may be possible that one engine will perform better with your particular documents than another. Use our handy OCR feature comparison chart to determine which OCR program best meets your requirements. And you can always ask an expert for a recommendation anytime!
And The Winner Is…
Our OCR experts have tested the latest versions of FineReader, Kofax OmniPage, and ReadIRIS, and we consider ABBYY FineReader the best overall value for business users, while ReadIRIS is the best OCR software for under $100.
The key deciding factors were:
- User interface design
- Page layout reconstruction capabilities
- Extensive language support
- Engine stability when processing large files
- Availability and quality of technical support
Though other testing labs have ranked OmniPage‘s overall accuracy slightly higher, we find the difference is nearly negligible. All modern OCR software has very good accuracy, so we recommend going with the one that has particular special features like ReadIRIS Corporate‘s CardIRIS, FineReader’s camera OCR and screenshot reader, or OmniPage Ultimate’s form data collection, auto-redaction and barcode filing capabilities.
If you would like to try them out yourself, ScanStore offers free demo downloads for ReadIRIS and FineReader. Kofax does not provide demos for its OCR products.
Businesses with many documents to process should use our SimpleIndex batch document scanning software with the FineReader OCR engine to scan and OCR large batches of documents. Barcode and OCR can also be used to sort and file documents into folders, databases or SharePoint.
OCR Data Capture
OCR can also be used to automate data entry from forms, surveys, invoices and other documents. Handwriting recognition (ICR) solutions are also available. For more information, check out these links:
- SimpleIndex batch scanning, zone OCR & barcode recognition software
- Forms processing & data capture software guides
- Invoice OCR software guide
- Compare batch scanning & forms processing solutions
The SimpleOCR freeware does NOT have any handprint OCR capabilities. it will not be able to recognize handwritten text. ICR (Intelligent Character Recognition) software is needed to read handwriting. There is a demo of SoftWriting included in the download but this is not part of the freeware and no longer supported by the vendor.
SimpleOCR Freeware |
ABBYY FineReader 15 |
ABBYY FineReader Corporate 15 |
IRIS ReadIRIS Pro 17 |
IRIS ReadIRIS Corporate 17 |
Kofax OmniPage Ultimate |
SimpleIndex Desktop 9 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Scanner Drivers Supported |
TWAIN | TWAIN | TWAIN | TWAIN | TWAIN | TWAIN / ISIS | TWAIN / ISIS |
Table/Spreadsheet Recognition |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
PDF Password Support |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Searchable PDF Output |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
Highly Compressed PDF Output |
MRC | MRC | iHQC | iHQC | MRC | ||
Vertical Text Recognition |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
Barcode Recognition |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Image Pre-processing |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Watched / Hot Folder |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Batch processing |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
Managed server processing |
|||||||
Indexing |
✓ | ✓ | |||||
Business Card Recognition |
Box version only | ||||||
Screenshot reader |
✓ | ✓ | |||||
Zone Templates |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Proofing & Training |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Languages Supported |
3 | 193 | 193 | 128 | 137 | 137 | 179 |
Arabic/Farsi/Hebrew |
Hebrew & Arabic Version | Hebrew & Arabic Version | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Chinese/Japanese/Korean |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
User Dictionaries |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Page Limit per Document |
1 | none | none | 50 | none | none | none |
Multi-Core Support |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
Installation |
Desktop | Desktop | Desktop/Server | Desktop | Desktop | Desktop | Desktop |
License |
Freeware | Standalone | Per Seat / Concurrent | Standalone | Standalone | Standalone 3 Licenses |
Standalone |
Product Information |
More Info | More Info | More Info | More Info | More Info | More Info | More Info |
ABBYY FineReader Server |
IRIS Powerscan Server |
PaperVision Capture OCR Server |
SimpleIndex 9 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
Scanner Drivers Supported |
TWAIN / ISIS |
N/A | TWAIN / ISIS |
TWAIN / ISIS |
Table/Spreadsheet Recognition |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
PDF Password Support |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Searchable PDF Output |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Highly Compressed PDF Output |
MRC | iHQC | ||
Vertical Text Recognition |
✓ | ✓ | ||
Barcode Recognition |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Image Pre-processing |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Watched / Hot Folder |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Batch processing |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Managed server processing |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Indexing |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Business Card Recognition |
||||
Screenshot reader |
||||
Zone Templates |
✓ | ✓ | ||
Proofing & Training |
✓ | ✓ | ||
Languages Supported |
191 | 137 | 121 | 179 |
Arabic/Farsi/Hebrew |
Hebrew & Arabic Version | 2 Add-ons | ||
Chinese/Japanese/Korean |
✓ | Asian Add-on | ||
User Dictionaries |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Page Limit per Document |
none | none | none | none |
Multi-Core Support |
✓ | Multi-CPU Add-on | ✓ | |
Installation |
Server | Desktop / Server |
Desktop / Server |
Desktop / Server |
License |
Volume-based | Core-based | Named / Concurrent |
Standalone |
Product Information |
More Info | More Info | More Info | More Info |
- SimpleIndex comes in Standard, Barcode, OCR and Professional versions, with Server licensing available for unattended processing. FineReader OCR is included with OCR and Pro. Tesseract OCR is included with all versions. Upgraded bar code recognition and scanner drivers are included with Barcode and Pro.
- SimpleView offers folder and file based document management, OCR and editing.
- SimpleSearch uses database indexes for fast, precise document searches.
- SimpleSend automates sending of document files via secure FTP or email.
- SimpleExport converts CSV files into XML or any other text file format using XSLT.
- SimpleCoversheet creates bar code separator sheets to automate scanning and indexing.
SimpleView lets you quickly scan, organize, search and view documents stored on your hard drive or file servers. Most document management systems use a database to organize and search for files. This forces you to laboriously import files into the system, then you must rely on that system anytime you access your files. SimpleView lets you use your existing folder and filing system to find, view and annotate documents.
Allows you to create QuickBooks transactions from any data source.
OCR data capture tools like SimpleIndex can read data from documents like invoices that must be entered in QuickBooks. However, QuickBooks doesn’t have a way to import this data. SimpleQB enables you to import any type of transaction data from any data capture application or database.
Abbyy FineReader 15 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.
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 that FineReader Corporate is the best choice of OCR software for business.
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.
Affordable OCR software for Macintosh users using the latest version of the IRIS OCR engine.
Creates editable, searchable files and e-books from scans, PDFs and digital photographs. The most accurate OCR available for OSX, its unmatched recognition and conversion eliminates retyping and reformatting. Sophisticated yet remarkably intuitive, FineReader has an easy-to-use interface that makes even the most complex tasks simple.
OmniPage Ultimate has several unique features that make it stand out for a variety of applications. Some of these include auto-redaction, SharePoint integration, automatic filing with barcodes, PDF auto-bookmarking, form data collection and MFP support. Most of these new features are not available in the Standard edition.
Adds support for files over 50 pages, business card recognition, as well as automatic processing of hot folders.
Adds support for files over 50 pages, business card recognition, as well as automatic processing of hot folders.
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.
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