In this article, you will discover the best OCR software.
Managing document archiving is often a complex and particularly time-consuming task.
Whether for a company or an individual, using a suitable tool can prove to be a relevant solution to carry out this task easily and without wasting too much time.
OCR software allows you to scan documents simply and efficiently.
But do you really know how they work and which are the best on the market in 2022?
This is what we will discover together in the rest of this article.
What is OCR software?
A OCR software (Optical Character Recognition) is software dedicated to optical character recognition (OCR in French).
They make it possible to dematerialize any paper document into a digital file, with the aim of modifying and subsequently using them directly from a computer or tablet, for example.
Just like the use of voice recognition software, this type of tool makes it easier to use certain non-numeric data.
It also saves considerable time, in particular by avoiding having to retype an entire paper document on the computer.
Finally, OCR software can be very useful for visually impaired people, in particular by allowing them to enlarge the characters of paper text that is difficult to read.
6 Best Free OCR Software
Choose your OCR software is not an easy task.
This is why we have selected the six best character recognition tools for you to help you make the best possible decision.
OmniPage 18
Designed by Nuance, OmniPage 18 is one of the best OCR software on the market.
It allows you to transpose texts into nearly 123 languages, modify them and carry out searches within a document.
In addition, OmniPage 18 offers the possibility of converting texts, but also tables, graphs and even images.
It also maintains the layout of the original document very well and can convert a PDF file to various formats, including Word, PowerPoint or Text, for example.
OmniPage Ultimate
Also designed by Nuance, OmniPage Ultimate is more advanced OCR software than OmniPage 18.
It offers the same functionalities as the latter, but allows you to process much larger documents and in greater numbers.
OmniPage Ultimate also allows you to send scanned documents to different servers or to specific locations on a computer, as well as to find the font of a text.
Readiris
Compatible with Windows, this OCR solution is powerful and equipped with multiple functionalities, particularly related to the use of files in PDF format.
Indeed, in addition to being able to convert texts and images, this tool also allows you to edit PDFs, add comments, make certain revisions and combine or merge documents together. Alongside this, Readiris also gives you the ability to batch process items and even add barcodes to your digital documents.
Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat is one of the most popular and premium OCR software on the market.
A true reference in terms of managing PDFs and other digital documents, it allows you to modify documents, comment on them or reorganize them in just a few steps.
Its little extra?
Its few collaborative features allow you to share documents with your team and record their comments.
Note that to obtain Adobe Acrobat, you will have the choice between purchasing the software alone (around €15 per month) or integrated into the Adobe Créative Cloud suite, with Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign (around €60 per month).
ABBYY FineReader 12 Professional
With its 190 languages supported, ABBY FineReader 12 Professional easily climbs into this ranking of the best OCR software on the market.
This is an ultra-precise solution, capable of preserving the format of the initial files before converting them into the digital format of your choice.
This OCR software is available on Windows and Mac and offers a free trial version.
PDFelement 6 OCR software
This OCR software allows you to convert any document into Microsoft Word, Text, Excel or HTML format, for example.
It also allows you to convert scanned forms into CSV format in order to make them usable. PDFelement 6 also offers a wide range of plug-ins to complete its offering and make its features even more powerful.
Finally, note that this OCR software allows you to fill out PDF forms directly in digital version, as well as secure access to the document by adding passwords or granting consultation permissions.
As we saw previously, the choosing OCR software should not be taken lightly.
This tool can be of great help to you, especially if your company has a very heavy workload in terms of archiving or dematerialization of data.
To be sure you make the right choice, we recommend that you ask yourself a few questions to best meet your needs.
Start, for example, by deciding whether you need the OCR software to support multiple file formats or whether you want it to only process PDFs.
Then determine if you have documents in different languages, so you can use software that can understand them all.
Then make sure how you want to use your tool: will you share it with your colleagues or use it personally?
Finally, ask yourself whether your OCR software should be able to scan images or whether this functionality is of no real interest to you.
You now know all the characteristics of the best OCR software on the market.
We hope that their features will fully meet your expectations!
To complete your range of tools, do not hesitate to consult our selection of business name generators!