By using the best OCR software, you can quickly scan articles, forms and other texts to save them in a PDF format. OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition, so such programs are handy when you need to optimize your workflow and reduce paperwork by converting invoices, reports and other office documents into digital files that are easier to store and share with your colleagues.
Top 8 OCR Software
- Adobe Acrobat - A great choice of conversion options
- ABBYY FineReader - Supports a wide selection of formats
- OmniPage Ultimate - Cutting-edge OCR technologies
- PDFelement - Pro-level integrated PDF editor
- Readiris - The best cloud-based choice for backups
- Tesseract - The best optical character recognition freeware
- SimpleOCR - Batch process
- SimpleOCR - Designed for business use
In recent years, OCR programs became more advanced, now they can solve any complex task with better precision. Even if your documents are old, handwritten or of poor quality, such software can perfectly recognize all text elements and create a formatted document by using noise removal algorithms. It will save you time, as you won’t need to type any texts manually. Besides, digital copies are easier to store and search.
1. Adobe Acrobat – Our Choice
- Text indexing
- Shares files via the cloud
- Creates documents without much noise
- Optimizes file size
- Overly expensive
Verdict: Adobe Acrobat DC is a great software for creating PDF files. With it, you can work with PDF documents from any device and quickly send them to your colleagues for signing. Besides creating and converting PDFs, the program comes with an in-built editor that allows you to check your scanned documents, compare different versions, leave your comments, suggest edits and correct mistakes.
The key selling point of this best OCR software is that it is can be installed on devices with different screens. Besides, it allows you to quickly assess the quality of the optical recognition process, compare input and output files, save documents in the supported formats. All PDFs created with the help of this program can be edited, signed and password-protected. They are also fully searchable, which lets you find any information without hassle.
2. ABBYY FineReader
- Useful keyboard shortcuts
- Saves files in several formats
- Allows comparing documents
- Streamlined interface
- Lacks full-text indexing
Verdict: ABBYY FineReader is considered to be the best PDF reader that can solve tasks of any complexity. Regardless of the type of document you need to scan, be it a review, filled form or a multi-page report, this program will create a seamlessly formatted file in any format of your choice. What’s more, it enables users to edit any text to make PDFs easier to read. Being one of the best known optical character recognition software, FineReader is widely used by various companies and organizations.
What makes it different from its counterparts is that it lets users convert files, recognize documents in different languages and make edits. It’s designed for seamless document image processing and creates PDFs with high accuracy. Besides texts, FineReader can recognize charts, tables and images. It comes with an integrated PDF editor that can be used for correcting mistakes or filling out forms.
3. OmniPage Ultimate
- Automated OCR
- Integrates with cloud services
- Text-to-speech recognition
- High accuracy
- Convoluted UI
Verdict: It is an all-in-one software that consists of several services. The core element is the OmniPage Ultimate program itself that was designed for optical character recognition. Its UI is different from the interfaces of other programs included in the full package. Recently, the developers offered a new solution named Launchpad that speeds up file conversion. It was created to facilitate your workflow, as most tasks are performed automatically. With it, you no longer need to adjust all the settings manually, which will help you work more effectively.
Thanks to the eDiscovery Assistant, you can quickly check all your documents and decide which of them you want to make fully searchable. It will give a boost to your productivity and help achieve more in less time. The only downside is that you can make PDFs searchable only if they haven’t been edited in any way.
Verdict: PDFelement features a well-thought-out UI that is easier to use than convoluted Office-style interfaces common to other programs of comparable functionality. This top OCR software is perfectly suitable for most work-related tasks. Small business owners will appreciate that it is significantly less expensive than other pro-level options on this list.
Many users consider it to be the best PDF to Word converter as it supports a stunning variety of formats. For instance, you can export files in XLS, RTF, PPT, EPUB, HTML and many other formats. It allows you to convert images, web-pages and text documents. For better convenience, it lets you add comments and custom forms, edit text, protect your documents with passwords and set restrictions to decide which users will get full access to your file.
5. Readiris
- Easy exporting
- Helpful support
- Quick performance
- Simple-to-use PDF tools
- Limited functionality of the free version
Verdict: Readiris Pro is the best OCR software for those who are looking for an ultimate solution for their businesses. It was created by I.R.I.S. and features an impressive selection of advanced OCR options, some of which can’t be found in other programs. Another advantage is that even the standard features are fine-tuned to perfection, which makes it a great solution for companies that value their time. Besides, it supports 130 languages.
After scanning your paper document, Readiris will create a digital copy while maintaining the original formatting. If you opt for the Corporate subscription plan, you will be able to use the text-to-speech recognition feature and create backups on such services as Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote. The program also boasts great indexing tools and lets you optimize file size.
6. Tesseract
- 40 languages
- Free to use
- Creates a text layer over the image
- Easy to master
- Basic image processing
Verdict: Tesseract is the best optical character recognition software that comes with an in-built OCR library. This open-source solution was designed for advanced character recognition and takes template matching to the next level. By employing adaptive recognition, it makes the OCR process more effective as it was pre-trained to perform character recognition even without predefined templates. After analyzing the context, Tesseract automatically finds templates in characters, words and sentences.
Thanks to the implemented Deep Learning technology, this good OCR software easily converts images saved in BMP, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, PDF formats into text. It runs under the most popular OS, such as Windows, Linux and macOS. Unlike expensive ABBYY and Adobe products, this program is absolutely free, which allows you to OCR countless images and make them searchable for free.
7. EasyScreenOCR
- User-friendly and quick
- Free to use
- 100% privacy
- Runs on multiple platforms
- Requires a stable Internet connection
Verdict: EasyScreenOCR is a user-friendly and agile tool. You only need to drag and drop your images, and wait several seconds. Your files will be uploaded and processed with the help of cutting-edge OCR technology. All uploaded files are deleted within 30 mins.
The program accepts 5 images/upload for the OCR processing. Plain text from each picture will be saved as a .txt file. Besides, all files are zipped before you can download them.
8. SimpleOCR
- Imports DOX files
- Checks spelling
- Saves files in an original format
- Free OCR SDK
- Poor customization
Verdict: If you want to use the best OCR software free of charge, this program will be a perfect solution for all tasks. While SimpleOCR is suitable for personal and business use, keep in mind that it lacks some options offered by paid software. However, you can use it to OCR handwritten reports and convert them into searchable text files that can be spell-checked and edited.
While its functionality might seem a bit limited and UI looks outdated, SimpleOCR makes solving basic tasks easier. It was designed for office use, which makes it perfect for scanning your paper documents and converting them into easy-to-read digital files.
