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OCR stands forOpticalCharacterRecognition.
The technology dates back to the late 1920’s, when the first OCR patent was issued in Germany.
TodayOCR is mainly used to convert scanned documents into text.
The original formatting, such as tables, columns, bullets, and graphics, will be maintained.
This last feature is rare among web-based OCR services.
you might purchase additional credits, starting at 6 cents per page.
I tested the service with a scanned formal letter.
The scan image contained clear folding edges and shading.
Nevertheless, both recognition of formatting and text worked flawlessly.
Unfortunately, this service does not recognize handwritten text.
NewOCR
Free Online OCR is straightforward.
Uploads are unlimited in number.
The file size may not exceed 5MB for image files and 20MB for PDF documents.
Registration is not required.
Unfortunately, all formatting is lost and Free Online OCR does not recognize handwritten text.
Moreover, in my test document some parts from the bottom of the scanned document appeared in the header.
However, it’s quick and easy to use.
Free OCR
Free OCR accepts image and PDF files of up to 2MB.
It will recognize only the first page of the PDF.
it’s possible for you to choose the language of the document to improve recognition of language specific characters.
A bonus is that you could upload up to 10 images per hour.
Although multi-column text is supported, the recognition result is plain text, meaning that all formatting is lost.
There is no membership option.
Although this service feels like very popular, it returned poor results in my test.
Many characters that were recognized perfectly with other online OCR services, were not recognized at all.
Apparently, the previously mentioned folding edge was a problem for Free OCR.
Karl wrote a detailed article introducing Free OCR.
Here are two articles that will get you started:
What are your experiences with online OCR services?
