Converting images to text for the computer, are you one of those who wish they could turn pictures into words? Well, you’re in the right place, welcome to this article. It’s amazing to be able to convert an image into text. Thanks to the significant technological advancements we’re experiencing in this era, handwritten documents and printed copies no longer hold a prominent place. Now, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology will solve this problem for us in an incredible way.
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OCR, or Optical Character Recognition, is a new technology that captures text from physical documents. This is extremely useful for extracting information from textbooks and other documents during research. Instead of wasting a lot of time, it’s better to let OCR do its job. It saves us from the hassle of copying written text, reduces the time spent searching for a specific document, and decreases the storage space needed for paper documents, all while improving workflow efficiency.
Undoubtedly, the only way to do this is by using software to convert images to text. These applications use your phone’s camera as a scanner to extract characters from documents. However, since this technology is still in its early years, many tools cannot fully recognize the characters in a document. For this reason, we’ve compiled a list of the best programs you can use right away.
1- FreeOCR
FreeOCR is a free OCR program that provides all the basic functions you might need from this type of software. It’s an OCR application for Windows with an accuracy of 99.8%. It also supports all major image formats as well as Photoshop files.
FreeOCR uses an open-source engine originally developed by Hewlett Packard and eventually released by Google for everyone to use. It preserves the original formatting of your file and transfers the recognized text to an editable MS Word file. The program supports (Windows 10).
2- Microsoft OneNote
Microsoft OneNote is primarily a note-taking app that can also function as an OCR tool. In fact, it has advanced OCR capabilities that work on both images and handwritten notes. It provides a simple and easy way to perform optical character recognition with minor limitations, such as not supporting tables and columns.
All you need to do is drag a scanned document or a saved image into OneNote. Then, right-click on the image and select the "Copy Text from Picture" option. Once you do that, the recognized text is copied to the clipboard, and now you can paste it back into OneNote or any program like Word or Notepad for further editing.
However, one subtle detail to note: the accuracy of OCR also depends on the quality of the image. The clearer the image, the more accurate the results.
3- SimpleOCR
SimpleOCR is literally an amazing and user-friendly program that can convert written documents into text directly from your scanner. Microsoft OneNote comes with a 14-day free trial for handwriting recognition and unrestricted printed text recognition.
There is only one limitation specific to SimpleOCR, which is multi-column documents. If you have documents that display any form of multiple columns or that haven’t been scanned clearly, SimpleOCR won’t be able to accomplish the task. But other than that, it does a very good job with plain text and saves it in DOC or TXT format after the conversion is complete.
4- Photo Scan
Photo Scan is an application that supports Windows 10. The program is a free OCR tool that you can easily download from the Microsoft Store. Created by Define Studios, the app supports various ads, but none of that detracts from the user experience.
The app is essentially an OCR scanner and QR code reader in one. All you need to do is point the app at an image or a printed copy of the file. If you prefer, you can also use your PC’s webcam to get a picture to look at. The text is recognized instantly and displayed in a nearby window. Additionally, what sets Photo Scan apart is its uncommon text-to-speech feature.
Photo Scan also gives you another great feature; if you click on the speaker icon, the app will start reading aloud what it just scanned. It may not be very good with handwritten text, but the recognition of printed text is completely accurate. Finally, you can easily save the OCR text in multiple formats such as text, HTML, Rich Text, and XML.
5- Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MODI)
Microsoft Office Document Imaging, abbreviated as MODI, comes with OCR that can efficiently convert printed text on an image into editable and searchable Word files. However, the results for handwritten text are mostly inaccurate and unreliable.
Another limitation that MODI brings is that you need to convert JPEG files to TIFF format using any graphic application before the conversion process. Once you do that, the rest of the process is very straightforward.
All you have to do is open the image in MODI, select the "Recognize Text Using OCR" option (look for the small eye icon), and click on the "Send Text to Word" icon. That’s it; the conversion result is saved in an MS Word file with editable text for further editing purposes.
6- Easy Screen OCR
Easy Screen OCR is an OCR program based on a cloud-based recognition engine managed by Google. The program isn’t completely free as it requires a subscription fee after 20 uses, but on the other hand, this tool is fast and easy to use. Since it’s cloud-based and supported by Google, this means you need an active internet connection for the program to work properly.
So if you don’t have a problem with that, you’ll find this tool extremely useful. Now comes the coolest part of this tool: the program supports over 100 languages, mainly because it uses Google’s optical character recognition engine.
So, if you want to translate (for example) Korean text, you can simply take a screenshot and let Easy Screen OCR do the translation for you. If you need to do this frequently, Easy Screen OCR gives you the option to set custom shortcut keys.
There’s a huge array of free tools that use OCR software to convert images to text. So, we discussed converting images to text for the computer, with the best 6 programs. I hope this article has helped you find the tool that best suits your needs and saves you valuable time.
