Images are everywhere. We consume images ranging from social media, advertisements, and even in our history books every day. However, does it mean that we can get that text out of those images? How would it feel to read that text and discover something new about your environment or to make an important document digital through scanning? It is at this point that optical character recognition (OCR) technology comes into play.
Optical character recognition (OCR) is the conversion of text images into a readable form by machines. It is a powerful tool that can be used for a variety of purposes, such as:
- Old digitization documents including books and publications.
- Creating searchable databases of images
- Helping people with visual impairments
- Automating data entry tasks
This is a resourceful page for people looking to know more about OCR and how it is used to extract text from images. This article will give some of the best OCR technology tricks and tips on how to extract text from scanned images.
Therefore, what is there to wait? Read now, and discover all you need to know about what OCR can do for your photographs.
Table of Contents
What is OCR and how does it work?
Optical character recognition (or OCR). It is an image to text conversion technology, with machines reading out the typed text as seen in the image. Applications that make use of OCR technology include document scanning, book digitalization, and database creation that are easily searchable.
The operation involves scanning or analyzing each pixel in a picture for patterns leading to the formation of letters, numbers, and symbols. Subsequently, it matches the obtained patterns with its database which stores various traits linked to each pattern and assigns a value for each trait. The OCR technology can also make use of contextual clues like word spacing, punctuation, and language rules to make the recognition more accurate.
OCR software recommendations
Here are a few recommendations for OCR software programs:
OCRopus:
OCRopus is an open-source OCR system that can interpret text in different pictures such as scanned documents, handwriting, or sign boards just to mention a few. This is useful for different purposes including scanning ancient documents, and databasing images among others as well as those suffering from blindness or other forms of vision problems.
One of the characteristics of this program is that it can identify the text even under complicated circumstances. This includes low contrast, noise, or distorted images. Moreover, it is capable of reading different kinds of texts in different languages and scripts as well.
Accuracy is another important characteristic of OCRopus. Some datasets have even demonstrated the OCRopus reaches over 99 percent accuracy. It is one of the most reliable automatic optical character recognition (AOCR) systems out there.
OCRopus is also very versatile. This can also function as a separate program, or else it may be incorporated into other software programs. Besides it has versions for different software such as Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Jpgtotext.com:
jpgtotext.com is a cost-free tool for optical character recognition to convert text into images of JPEG. This is a simple and straightforward tool that you need not necessarily be technical. There is no need to do it manually. They can simply access an online JPG to Word converter and use it to get the required text in a Word file.
All you need to do is upload your JPG image to the site and then press the extract text button. Once an image is uploaded to the website, the software will automatically convert the image into text and place it in a text box. The extracted text can then be copied and pasted into another application, one which may include a word processor or spreadsheet software and so on.
jpgtotext.com is an extremely accurate OCR application capable of handling images with various types of backgrounds, fonts as well and varying text sizes. The algorithm is also able to process noisy or distorted images.
Jpgtotext.com is also free which makes it one of its strengths. Registration and subscription fees are not needed. The process is straightforward, you just have to upload your image and get text out of it with no limit.
It also allows for the upload of files on a website, thus making it a web-based application. In essence, you can access it from any PC as long as it’s connected to the internet. There is no requirement for you to install any software on your computer.
jpgtotext.com can be of great help to anyone willing to retrieve texts from JPG pictures. Easy to use, simple, and reliable. It’s also a free service provided over the internet thereby making it more useful.
Boxoft Free OCR:
The boxsoft free OCR is a freeware to extract text from images, scanned documents, and PDFs. It can read and write in several input and output formats such as JPG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, PDF, and DOC.
The boxoft free OCR is one of the most handy applications for its users. Extraction of text from an image, open the image and click “ocr”. Once the software recognizes the text, it will be displayed within a formatted text box. Once that is done, you can either save the extracted text in any other application like the word processor or the spreadsheet software.
Accurate, free OCR boxout. It can detect text in several types, styles, and colors of the font. Also, it can deal with blurred or dirty pictures.
Apart from this, Boxoft Free OCR does not require any payment as it comes absolutely free. Registration and subscription fees are free. You just have to download the software and start using it without any delay.
Also, Boxoft free OCR is one of the most lightweight software. It is not resource-consuming to operate. It implies that you can use it with the old versions of computers.
Boxoft Free OCR is of great use in helping people get text from photographs, scanned pages, and PDF files. It is a reliable, convenient, and free optical character reader for all purposes subsection. The results of the experimental survey are presented below
A Guide To The Best OCR Technology Tips And Tricks.
Here are a few tips and tricks for using OCR technology:
- Prepare your images for OCR: Preparation of images before running them through OCR software is very important. This encompasses ensuring that the pictures are of good quality and the texts are well-spelt out and legible. Furthermore, cropping of these images may be required in order to eliminate any unwanted background information surrounding them.
- Choose the right OCR settings: However, each and every OCR software program has distinct settings. For this reason, it is essential to select the right settings for your images to yield optimal results. As such, in case you are extracting text from images of scanned documents, you should select the “scanned documents” setting.
- Troubleshooting common OCR problems: In case of difficulties you have encountered in OCR, you may try something. Secondly, ensure that you have chosen a compatible OCR software program for your task. In addition to this, you could play around with your OCR settings as well. In case you face additional difficulties, it is possible that you will require assistance from the manufacturer of your optical character recognition program.
Conclusion
The optical character recognition technology can be used to retrieve text from different media including pictures, PDFs, or scanned documents. It cuts across different sectors but the best practices are to use clear images, correct OCR software for languages, and careful proofreading with manual correction to avoid any errors.
