OCR Form

Why do I need OCR?

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a technology that converts typed, handwritten, or printed text from scanned documents and images into editable, searchable machine-readable data. Without OCR, a scanner simply takes a digital photograph of a page. Because the text in a standard image cannot be searched, copied, or modified, the data remains locked. OCR software solves this by analyzing the shapes of characters in an image and translating them into actual text that other software applications can read and process.

There is a wide variety of OCR software available. While they all share the ability to convert images of machine printed (not handwritten) text or numbers into an editable format, the various software often have different features, accuracy, prices, and language options.

You can find the various types of OCR software with a description of each below.

Users within a single department, working from home or who have a small business can simply scan their documents to a folder that is shared to everyone. In this “ad-hoc” scenario you only need some basic document scanning software to simplify and bring consistency to your filing system.

If you want to move to the next level, there are Desktop Document Management options that provide an all-in-one means for capture, storage, search and retrieval of documents. Additionally, they provide security, advanced capabilities and ease of use above that of the ad-hoc methods

And let’s not forget cloud-based options that alleviate the need to maintain storage servers or keep software up to date.

• SimpleIndex
• SimpleView
• Digitech PaperVision
• DiVA (Cloud-based)
• Abbyy FineReader
• Tungsten Kofax Omnipage
• IRIS ReadIris

Need a simple, no frills OCR solution without spending hundreds of dollars on a professional software package? Look no further. There is a no cost, […]