OCR Guide
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.
Table of Contents:
- What is OCR?
- OCR Output Types
- Limitations of OCR
- OCR for Business
- Levels of OCR Software
- Improving OCR Accuracy
- Desktop OCR Software Comparison
- Feature Comparison Chart
- OCR Apps and Descriptions
What is OCR?
The primary purpose of Optical Character Recognition is to quickly and automatically scanned or photographed document images into machine readable text that can be searched for keywords or edited in a word processor.
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.
The biggest OCR engines employ huge Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) models that have been trained on billions of documents collected over decades of development.
While the exact mechanics of this process can be complicated, OCR engines are a key automation tool for the digital age. It bridges the gap between knowledge stored on physical documents and digital data that can be edited, searched or parsed into structured data to automate data entry tasks.
OCR Output Types
Full Page OCR converts the entire document into one of the following formats:
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