OCR software turns text images into machine-readable, scannable online documents that may be viewed from any computer. The transfer of paper documents such as passports, business cards, and bank statements is the most frequent method of digitising text so that it may be updated on a computer.
Using the best OCR software, you can scan and archive any image-based document into an editable PDF format. These systems, which make document management and cloud storage simple and rapid, can help both individuals and enterprises. In this article, I review and rank the top optical character recognition OCR software based on speed, ease of use, storage capacity, accuracy, pricing, support, and other aspects.
Let’s get down to business with the list of best OCR software.
What is OCR Software?
OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software recognises printed or handwritten text in digital files or physical documents using OCR technology. Its key responsibilities include examining text in documents and turning it into code for data processing. In layman’s terms, OCR software is also known as a text recognition tool.
What is the Best OCR Software?
Here are my top recommendations for the best optical character recognition, OCR software to use in 2021.
1. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC
OCR software, such as Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, extracts text from scanned documents and converts them to editable PDF files. It provides a comprehensive PDF solution for every device. This means you can create smart PDFs, edit them, and convert them to Microsoft Office and JPG formats. Pro DC may also be used to share, sign, print, and compress PDFs.
The OCR programme also offers a lot of editing features, including text recognition, adding comments, reordering pages, combining files, and so on. Pages can be rotated, removed, and cropped, to name a few choices.
Pros:
- Adobe’s photo editing software, photo management tools, and graphic design software all work nicely together.
- Use Action Wizard to personalize and create PDFs while saving time and keystrokes.
- The Accessibility Checker can be used to check the accessibility of a PDF.
- Texts from the paper are automatically scanned and converted into editable documents.
- Compress PDF files without sacrificing quality with an online PDF utility for convenient storage and administration.
- Convert PDF to PNG, TIFF, or JPEG, among other formats.
- For 7 days, there is no charge.
Pricing:
- A monthly subscription to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is $14.99.
- For $12.99 per month, you can also create, edit, and sign PDFs with Acrobat Standard DC.
2. OmniPage Ultimate by Kofax
Omnipage Ultimate is a tool that converts paper, PDFs, and photographs to digital files using optical character recognition (OCR). It basically turns PDF files and forms into editable documents that you can edit, archive, and share. The software, though, is only available for Windows, so you won’t be able to use it on your Mac.
Additionally, the OCR software allows you to automatically send converted PDF files to pre-programmed workflows. You can use its eDiscovery Assistant to convert single or numerous PDF files into searchable files.
Pros:
- It supports a wide variety of file formats, including Microsoft Office, PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Corel WordPerfect, HTML, and ePub.
- Documents can be scanned in any format and sent anywhere on the network.
- Use Amazon Kindle Recognition to deliver converted documents to the eBook reader immediately.
- Create your own processes to execute recurring jobs more precisely.
- The formatting of original papers is preserved by the utility.
- Integrate OCR capabilities into apps to provide virtual support for operating systems on PCs and smartphones.
Pricing:
- The one-time purchase of OmniPage Ultimate is $499.
- You also get a 15-day free trial to familiarize yourself with the OCR software.
3. ABBYY FineReader PDF 15
ABBYY FineReader PDF 15 is a PDF solution that creates and improves all types of PDF documents using AI-based OCR software. You can also use it to digitise, retrieve, preserve, collaborate, and share a range of documents all in one place. You can also change the layout of the document, as well as the paragraphs and sentences.
Pros:
- Create password-protected PDF files with various levels of security.
- Verify the integrity and authenticity of the digital signature.
- PDF files can be converted to a variety of editable formats, including Microsoft Excel and Word.
- Split PDF files into sections based on page count, file size, or bookmarks.
- Use MRC Compression to reduce the size of PDF files by up to 20 times.
Pricing:
- There are three premium options available with ABBYY FineReader PDF 15:
- A one-time payment of $199 is required.
- $299 one-time payment for corporations
- Quote-based volume licencing (for large organizations)
4. Readiris
Readiris is a PDF and OCR programme that lets you edit and annotate PDF files, as well as aggregate, split, secure, and sign them. You can edit, convert, and transform paper files into a number of digital formats with only a few clicks. Photos, PDFs, and texts may all be converted to editable formats including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and indexed PDF. It also comes with a new recognition engine that makes document management easier.
Pros:
- All Twain scanners are compatible with the tool.
- Adjust and rotate documents that are upside down or skewed.
- On an eBook reader, convert books and documents to EPUB format.
- Text contained in photographs can be changed.
- Readiris understands over 130 different languages.
- A money-back guarantee for 30 days.
- Online tech support is available at no cost.
- Utilize the IRIS iHQC technology to reduce the size of PDF files by up to 50%.
Pricing:
Readiris has three different sub-products:
- this cost is PDF 17 costs $49 USD.
- Readiris Pro 17 costs $59 USD.
- It is Corporate 17 costs $89 USD.
5. SimpleOCR
SimpleOCR is a freeware OCR that offers a royalty-free OCR SDK for developers to utilise in their own apps. To maximise scanner compatibility, it works with all versions of Windows and only requires a TWAIN driver. It includes a wide vocabulary of over 120,000 words to assist you in swiftly recognising words in your documents. You can also use the text editor to create new phrases.
Pros:
- Use Zone OCR to extract more text from a specific section of the document.
- The transformed files can be saved in DOC or TXT formats.
- It allows you to extract plain text.
- TWAIN scanners are supported.
- The program recognises both French and English.
- It is available for personal use at no cost.
Pricing:
- It is possible to use the software for free.
- The premium versions, on the other hand, start at $25 and go up to $2500.
6. Tesseract
The Apache License is used to provide esseract, a free OCR application. In addition to output text formatting, page layout analysis, and hOCR positional data, this open-source software supports output text formatting, page layout analysis, and hOCR positional data.
It also employs the Leptonica library to support a wide range of image formats.
The program’s most suitable uses are text detection on mobile devices, movies, and Gmail image spam detection. It can also recognise monospaced and proportionately spaced texts.
Pros:
- It arranges text blobs into aligned text lines.
- Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X are all supported.
- Tesseract can detect and correct tiny caps and fuzziness.
- Other scripts and languages can be trained into the software.
- It uses linguistic analysis to determine the most likely words from a given set of characters.
- Both proportional and non-proportional words are detected by OCR software.
Pricing:
- Tesseract is a completely free open-source programme.
7. Microsoft OneNote
Microsoft OneNote is an OCR tool that, among other things, allows you to take notes, gather information, and produce digital forms, screen recordings, and notes. You can also alter text by copying and pasting text from a photo or file publishing into your notes. You may now divide and organise your notes into parts and pages, as well as use a search bar to find them.
Additionally, all of your notes are saved automatically, and you can find them exactly where you left them. To amend your notes, you can use highlighting, typeface, or ink annotations. Not only that, but OneNote also allows you to collaborate with your coworkers on notes.
You may also share your ideas with coworkers and employees using this feature.
Pros:
- You can use a stylus or your fingers to doodle on your notes.
- To your notes, you can add files, internet movies, and audio notes.
- It can accommodate up to 6 people.
- Per person, up to 1 TB of storage is available.
- Other Microsoft Office Mobile apps, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, are also available.
Pricing:
- There are three pricing options for Microsoft OneNote:
- $149.99 Office Home & Student (One-time purchase)
- Microsoft 365 Personal is available for $69.99 per year.
- $99.99 per year for Microsoft 365 Family
With the Microsoft 365 Family package, you also get a one-month trial.
8. Amazon Textract
Amazon Textract is a machine learning programme that automatically extracts data and text from scanned documents. It also uses OCR technology to extract data from forms and tables, as well as automatically recognise written text and numbers. In addition, Amazon Augmented AI (Amazon A2I) is used by the OCR programme to review the text recovered from scanned documents.
Pros:
- It’s a web-based programme, but you may also use the command line to download it.
- You can convert up to 1000 pages for free with this program.
- The Web, Windows, macOS, and Linux are all supported.
Pricing:
The following pricing plans are based on the type of data extracted:
- $0.0015/page for Detect Document Text API (OCR)
- For pages containing tables, the Analyze Document API costs $0.015 per page.
- Examine the Document API for pages that contain forms: $0.05 per page
- Analyze the Document API for tables and forms on pages: $0.015+$0.05 per page
New clients can use the Detect Document Text API to analyse up to 1000 pages per month for the first three months, and the Analyze Document API to analyse up to 100 pages per month for the first three months.
9. Google Docs
Google Docs is a web-based word processor with text and paragraph formatting, as well as editing and styling features. It also includes a free OCR capability that converts PDF files into editable text. You may even share your documents with others and give them access to them in real time. You can also view who is revising your document and what changes they are making with Google Docs.
Pros:
- Typing with my voice
- Free templates are available for a variety of documents, including resumes, reports, and more.
- You may use Google Docs from your phone, PC, laptop, or tablet at any time.
- Google Docs accepts all file types.
- The total number of words can be simply determined.
- Check your spelling and punctuation.
Pricing:
- Google Docs is a free service.
10. Rossum
Rossum is an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered OCR programme that extracts data from invoices and avoids manual data entry. They claim to be able to capture 98% of data from any business document or invoice with accuracy. Not only that, but they also help with error minimization.
Rossum is also template-agnostic, capturing data from any type of invoice, regardless of design. You can add or change data and provide feedback once the document has been converted or scanned. Rossum also advises clients to examine and inspect bills for which their software is in doubt.
Pros:
- PDFs, JPGs, and PNGs are among the formats supported.
- Data can be exported in CSV, JSON, XLSX, or XML forms using their software.
- NBD email is supported by the software.
- A single account can be accessed by an unlimited number of people.
- Scanning numerous papers at once is possible.
Pricing:
- Plans that are based on quot
