Optical character recognition (OCR) is a system of converting scanned printed/handwritten image files into its machine-readable text format. OCR software works by analyzing a document and comparing it with fonts stored in its database and/or by noting features typical to characters.
The actual developer of this free software for Mac is LEAD Technologies, Inc. OCR App can perform Optical Character Recognition (OCR) on images, extract text from images, and convert images to various document formats with superior accuracy and speed. In addition, it lets you convert and export images to a variety of document formats, including.

Want OCR software for free? This article collects the seven best programs that don’t cost anything.

See Mac apps for OCR. Download, install, and explore always updated Mac apps. Find your new favorite Mac app today at MacUpdate! There's no free option I'm aware of, though for limited use there are online OCR options, such as OCR Terminal. Click to expand. ABBYY Finereader Express for Mac does now have a free trial.

What is OCR?

Optical character recognition (OCR) software convert pictures to text. OCR software analyze a document and compare it with fonts stored in their database and/or by noting features typical to characters. Some OCR software also put it through a spell checker to “guess” unrecognized words. 100% accuracy is difficult to achieve, but a close approximation is what most software strive for.

OCR software can be productivity shortcuts for students, researchers, and office workers. So let’s play with a few more and find the best OCR software for your needs.

1. OCR Using Microsoft OneNote

Microsoft OneNote has advanced OCR functionality which works on both pictures and handwritten notes.

Drag a scan or a saved picture into OneNote. You can also use OneNote to clip part of the screen or an image into OneNote.
Right click on the inserted picture and select Copy Text from Picture. The copied optically recognized text goes into the clipboard and you can now paste it back into OneNote or into any program like Word or Notepad.

OneNote can also extract text from a multi-page printout with one click. Insert a multiple page printout in OneNote and then right-click on the currently selected page.

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Click Copy Text from this Page of the Printout to grab text from this selected page only.
Click Copy Text from All the Pages of the Printout to copy text from all the pages in one shot as you can see below.

Do note that the accuracy of the OCR depends on the quality of the photo too. That’s why optically recognizing handwriting is still a bit fuzzy for OneNote and other OCR software in the market. That said, it is one of the key features in OneNoteThe 13 Best New OneNote Features You Haven't Tried YetThe 13 Best New OneNote Features You Haven't Tried YetMicrosoft has added many new perks to OneNote for Windows 10. Here are the best new OnenNote features in OneNote that you may have missed.Read More you should use at every opportunity.

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Want to know how OneNote compares against a paid OCR software? Read our comparison of OneNote and OmniPageFree vs. Paid OCR Software: Microsoft OneNote and Nuance OmniPage ComparedFree vs. Paid OCR Software: Microsoft OneNote and Nuance OmniPage ComparedOCR scanner software lets you convert text in images or PDFs into editable text documents. Is a free OCR tool like OneNote good enough? Let's find out!Read More.

2. SimpleOCR

The difficulty I was having with handwriting recognition using MS tools, could have found a solution in SimpleOCR. But the software offers handwriting recognition only as a 14 day free trial. Machine print recognition though does not have any restrictions.

The software looks outdated as it hasn’t been updated since version 3.1, but you can still try it out for its simplicity.

Set it up to read directly from a scanner or by adding a page (JPG, TIFF, BMP formats).
SimpleOCR offers some control over the conversion through text selection, image selection and text ignore features.
Conversion to text takes the process into a validation stage; a user can correct discrepancies in the converted text using an in-built spell-checker.
The converted file can be saved to a DOC or TXT format.

SimpleOCR was fine with normal text, but its handling of multi-column layouts was a disappointment. In my opinion, the conversion accuracy of the Microsoft tools was considerably better than SimpleOCR.

Download:SimpleOCR for Windows (Free, Paid)

3. Photo Scan

Photo Scan is a free Windows 10 OCR app you can download from the Microsoft Store. Created by Define Studios, the app is ad-supported but that does not mar the experience. The app is an OCR scanner and a QR code reader rolled into one.

Point the app to an image or a file printout. You can also use your PC’s web cam to give it an image to look at. The recognized text is displayed in an adjacent window.

The text to speech feature is a highlight. Click the speaker icon and the app will read aloud what it just scanned.

It’s not great with handwritten text, but printed text recognition was adequate. When everything is done, you can save the OCR text in multiple formats like Text, HTML, Rich Text, XML, Log format etc.

Download:Photo Scan (Free, in-app purchase)

4. (a9t9) Free OCR Windows App

(a9t9) Free OCR software is a Universal Windows Platform app. So you can use it with any Windows device you own. There is also an online OCR equivalent that is powered by the same API.

(a9t9) supports 21 languages for parsing your images and PDF to text. The app is also free to use, and the ad support can be removed with an in-app purchase. Like most free OCR programs, it is idea for printed documents and not handwritten text.

Download:a9t9 Free OCR (Free, in-app purchase)

5. Capture2Text

Capture2Text is a free OCR software for Windows 10 that gives you keyboard shortcuts to quickly OCR anything on the screen. It also does not require any installation.

Use the default keyboard shortcut WinKey + Q to activate the OCR process. You can then use the mouse to select the portion you want to capture. Hit Enter and then selection will be optically recognized. The captured and converted text will appear in a popup and will also be copied to the clipboard.

Capture2Text uses Google’s OCR engine and supports 100+ languages. It uses Google Translate to convert the captured text to other languages. Look inside the Settings to tweak the different options provided by the software.

Download:Capture2Text (Free)

6. Easy Screen OCR

Easy Screen OCR isn’t free. But I mention it here because it is fast and convenient. You can also use it freely for up to 20 times without any subscription. The software works from the system tray or the taskbar. Right-click on Easy Screen OCR icon and select Capture from the menu. Take a screenshot of any image, website, video, document, or anything else on the screen by dragging the mouse cursor.

Easy Screen OCR then displays a dialog with three tabs. The screenshot tab gives you a preview of the captured text. Click the OCR button to read the text from the image. The optically converted text can now be copied from the Text tab of the dialog.

You can set the recognition languages for the OCR in the software’s Preferences. More than 100 languages are supported as the software uses Google’s OCR engine.

Download:Easy Screen OCR ($9 per month)

Also: OCR With Google Docs

If you are away from your own computer, then try the OCR powers of Google Drive. Google Docs has an in-built OCR program that can recognize text in JPEG, PNG, GIF, and PDF files. But all files should be 2 M

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