OCR software played an important role in converting images of historic literature into online readable documents. Nowadays they are used more than to do complex image recognition and conversion of machine code into different data formats.
It has become an integral part of individuals and businesses to easily manage their cloud storage and document management requirements. However, there are many best OCR software that can scan and archive any image-based document, and choosing from them can be a quite difficult task.
So in this guide, I have ranked and reviewed the best OCR software based on pricing, features, optical recognition, support, integrations, accuracy, ease of use, and more.
So let’s get started.
What is the Best OCR Software?
Here is my list of the best OCR system to use this year.
1. OmniPage Ultimate by Kofax
OmniPage Ultimate is quite popular software generally for small businesses. This software helps convert documents, PDF documents, and other digital images into editable files which are in the form of electronic files. You can then send these files to co-workers or customers. While converting the documents, OmniPage maintains the originality of formatting. The text is converted into editable form through its OCR (Optical Character Recognition).
Furthermore, in this software, you can directly capture the text from the magazines or brochures or you can also take a photo of it without having to retype the content of it. This software provides a scanner for lengthy paper documents that can be converted to the form of text that is easily searchable.
Moreover, its features help you to carry out batch processing of your text or images, by taking or importing your images or text from the location it is in or from cloud locations. Then it extracts the data into a database or a spreadsheet. This software can help improve the effectiveness of your small business or organization by fast and accurate processing of your data or text with OCR software.
Key Features
- Maximizes the PDF searches: It converts a normal PDF file or the batches of PDF files into accurate searchable files instead of opening the pdf individually or applying the OCR process separately lowering the risk of wiping out some important information.
- Improves accuracy: It provides a feature of high accuracy whether it is transforming text or digital images. It also suggests improvements in the layout of the document.
- Leverage Kofax OmniPage Launchpad: Launchpad of OmniPage makes the document conversion much easier, faster, and convenient to convert documents of any kind and send them to the desired location
- Batch Processing: When you want to convert files in a big volume, OmniPage makes it easier for you by scheduling it for batch processing from email or folders.
Pros
- When you convert your documents, they look just the same as the original ones and become easier to edit. Even includes tables, columns, or graphs if any are present in the document.
- OmniPage works with all devices(whether it is mobile scanners or PC scanners that can scan text or images. OmniPage works best with multi-function printers.
- It supports widely used applications like PDF, Microsoft Word, HTML, PowerPoint, Excel, and many more.
- Not only does OmniPage convert the text or image, but it also transforms the data and exports it to a database or spreadsheet.
- You can use a digital camera to capture the picture and convert these pictures into editable text documents with Kofax 3D correction technology which is highly accurate.
Pricing Plan
OmniPage Ultimate costs US $499 which includes 1 single license, which can be installed on up to 2 Win OS devices. Custom quoting is also available.
2. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is the most known software on which almost five million organizations are relying upon. Two decades ago, Adobe created the PDF, and its editor has also been successful in this category. Due to the higher price of the software, people were giving thought to buy it. After that, Acrobat launched a cloud subscription model which makes it much more affordable for fewer budget enterprises.
Mainly, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC consists of three parts – from which Acrobat DC allows you to carry out the tasks like editing functions in your PDF files on your mobile devices and desktops. Furthermore, these PDF files can be created and exported by Adobe Document Cloud. It also lets you store and send files, and capture electronic signatures. And the Acrobat Reader DC allows you to print, read and sign PDFs.
Acrobat provides a tabbed interface that is easily navigable. When you open it, you are shown the home page if no PDF file is already open. You can have quick access to your recently viewed files or the PDFs that has been sent for review or signature. It has a toolbar at the top of the PDF file and navigation and task panes are at the left and right side of the file respectively. Adobe offers a variety of features related to PDF and in a business environment. PDF can be created from various file types like images, scanned documents, HTML, and Microsoft Office files. Some sensitive information can be also protected via encryption or text redaction.
Key Features
- E-signature: Acrobat Pro DC provides a feature of e-sign that makes your work easy, and efficient to collect e-signatures. Signing documents is made easy by Acrobat Pro DC. Moreover, PDF and E-signature tools are in one app. And E-signatures are secured to use.
- Organizing: Acrobat Pro DC allows you to combine the PDF files and re-arrange or organize the pages in it.
- Quick access to tools: Tools of Acrobat Pro DC are easily available any time you need to use them, you can click Home Tab.
- Conversion tools: Acrobat Pro DC provides converting tools like Convert to PDF, Word to PDF, PPT to PDF, Excel to PDF, JPG to PDF, and reverse conversion also.
- Other tools of PDF: It also provides an option of Print to PDF, Compress PDF, and HTML to PDF.
Pros
- With Acrobat Pro DC you can easily edit text and images in your PDF, add notes and annotations, and highlight some text.
- Acrobat Pro DC allows you to edit the scanned text through OCR.
- It provides you with the option of merging multiple files into one or splitting one PDF into multiple files.
- Acrobat Pro DC makes it possible for you to remove any pages of your PDF or re-arrange your pages of the PDF.
- You can create a new PDF of selected pages from a PDF, extract them and combine them in a new PDF. Additionally, you can also insert new pages into your PDF file.
- Your PDF pages can be cropped, trim the outer edges of the pages in the PDF.
Pricing Plan
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC provides a subscription for Windows and macOS for $15 a month with an annual subscription, of about $180 a year. The Adobe Standard DC doesn’t include some advanced editing features and is for Windows for $13 per month with an annual subscription. Both versions come with a free 7-day trial.
3. Readiris
Readiris manages your large volume of PDF and other documents. It can also perform any operation you need to perform on it. Readiris is said to be a powerful PDF-centric manager software for a small business or an end-user. Readiris has three versions of it – standard, 365, and business. Standard mainly focuses on small businesses. Readiris is generally used for students or SMBs. Readiris Business is used by enterprises.
Moreover, Readiris provides OCR solutions for Windows and Mac too. Readiris is the best all-in-one Document, Files & PDF Manager. Whenever you need to create PDF, convert it, edit, annotate, sign, review, protect and share any document or file in any format from a PDF file or into a PDF file, Readiris PDF can be of your help and boost your daily productivity.
Your daily activities include contracts, word documents, JPG files, Excel spreadsheets, blueprints, tender projects, meeting minutes, non-disclosure agreements, employment agreements, business plans, and online terms of service, online privacy policies, apostille, receipts, or even invoices.
Key Features
- Convert from PDF: PDF can be converted to word, excel, PPT, Index PDF, and can also compress PDF
- Convert to PDF: JPG, Word, Excel, PPT, and TXT files can be easily converted to PDF files.
- PDF editor: Includes PDF stamps and mark-ups, PDF notes, Sticky notes, comments, and PDF Redact.
- Create and sign PDF: It helps you convert image files to PDF, paper documents to PDF, Archives to PDF, Sign PDF by E-signature, and ID, edit, and print protect the document.
- Manage and share PDF: Merge, Combine, Split, and Share PDF in the public cloud.
Pros
- Readiris provides scanners like book scanners, mouse scanners, cordless scanners, USB portable scanners, Business card scanners, and Multi-page sheetfed scanners.
- By allowing you to easily edit existing PDF files, the Readiris PDF manager adds flexibility to the advantages of PDF usage.
- With Readiris, you can easily add, delete, or edit sections of text directly on an existing PDF document without the complexity or additional effort required by other methods.
- The user can add different stamp overlays directly to their PDF documents using Readiris. Examples of PDF stamps include sign here, paid, approved, declined, and confidential information.
Pricing Plan
Readiris provides 3 types of subscriptions:
- Standard: It includes converting, editing, annotating, merging, scanning, and OCR which costs $99.
- 365: for family or enterprise having 5 licenses which cost $109.
- Business: for small businesses and enterprises which cost $139.
4. ABBYY FineReader PDF 15
Digital workers can overcome everyday document challenges with FineReader PDF. Millions of customers rely on ABBY FineReader PDF for Windows to efficiently process documents. With the software, you can easily access and modify information in paper-based documents and PDFs.
ABBYY FineReader’s best feature is that you can see the scanned document being scanned as it is imported into OCR. The all-in-one OCR and PDF software application FineReader enhances business productivity. A variety of tools are available to access and modify the information contained in paper-based documents and PDFs.
It’s easier to use than Adobe’s PDF application, and it’s very powerful. The pricing model is good, as it does not require a subscription. A page can be laid out differently depending on the fields on the page, separately marking the pics and text, and editing without ruining the layout. Using ABBYY, you can even translate the existing layout and save it again as a PDF in the new language.
Key Features
- View, navigate and organize PDFs: You can select an appropriate viewing mode based on your reading preference. Add, delete, rearrange, rotate, and crop pages. Merge documents into a single PDF.
- Reuse information from PDFs: Text and tables can be copied and pasted directly from any PDF document while maintaining the formatting. Metadata can be updated and digital signatures can be verified to ensure the integrity and authenticity of the documents.
- Manage and adapt PDF documents for specific workflows: You can customize PDFs with stamps, Bates numbers, and watermarks to fit your workflow. You can add or edit links, bookmarks, headers, footers, and page numbers. You can add specific keywords to the metadata to help you find documents.
- Edit and update PDFs: Add updates to previous versions or create entirely new documents based on pre-existing PDFs. You can edit your paragraphs or add new ones, add or delete pictures, and edit the text inside tables.
- Search, Replace, and Redact: Search for specific keywords to find information quickly, and work with the highlighted results with equal ease to sort through, replace, or redact the retrieved information.
Pros
- All types of documents can be digitized, retrieved, edited, protected, shared, and collaborated on in one workflow.
- Automate the process of converting paper documents into digital files with AI-based OCR technology.
- Deploy one PDF solution throughout your organization to ensure multiple stakeholders can collaborate smoothly.
Pricing Plan
There are three plans available which are mentioned below:
- FineReader PDF 15 Standard for Windows – £ 165 (one-time payment). You can get a volume discount.
- FineReader PDF 15 Corporate for Windows – £ 235 (one-time payment). You can a get volume discount.
- FineReader PDF for Mac® – £ 109 (one-time payment). You can get a volume discount.
So now let’s cover the basics,
What is OCR Software?
OCR or Optical Character Recognition is a technology that allows you to detect the text present in the physical document or digital files. It basically converts the optical image data received into code to process what the content is actually about.
It is also known as a text recognition tool due to this ability. Plus, these OCR systems require a combination of hardware and software to convert physical documents into readable characters for the machine. It basically relies on an optical scanner or other specialized circuits to scan the physical text and start advanced processing into it.
This processing involves artificial intelligence (AI) that performs intelligent character recognition (ICR) on handwriting styles for language detection. Moreover, OCR Software is useful in digitizing physical text documents to PDFs and other data processing archives.
What Features Should You Look for in an OCR Software?
Here are some of the standard features you should look out for in an OCR tool.
1. Language Recognition
Lookout for the OCR software that supports the detection of multiple language recognition. Moreover, make sure that the precision for detection of these languages is reasonable and that there are not a ton of errors in it.
2. Layout Detection and Analysis
The OCR program should be able to retain the original format and document layout. Moreover, it should also automatically detect all images, tables, splits, columns of text, etc. inside a document.
3. Digital Signature
The software should provide the functionality to give and take digital signatures from remote locations.
4. Multiple Format Support
OCR software should support multiple file formats for data storage such as PDF, JPG, MS Office, etc.
5. Search and Filter Capabilities
The software should offer an easy search features through titles, keywords, filters, and more. It should also detect whether any other character encoding is present in the document or not, and remove it if present.
Best OCR Software – Final Summary
This wraps up my list of the best OCR software to use this year. I will keep updating the list with other good OCR software available in the market.
Remember there will be times when you have to digitize your printed or hand-written documents and store them securely on the cloud. Therefore, if you are a business requiring very conversion precision for your operations then go for Adobe Acrobat Pro DC since it’s the best overall OCR software available in the market.
Otherwise. if your requirements are not that important then you so go with free options such as Google Docs, SimpleOCR, and Tesseract. Finally, do the research by going through all the options before deciding to use a particular OCR software.
Which one of these OCR software are you planning to use? Let me know in the comment section below.
More from Smashitbuck: Do check out my other articles on the best mind mapping software for mac, youtube2mp3, and copyright-free images to read this year.
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