05 Free Online Tools To Extract Text From Image Using OCR Technology

OCR tool is a necessity in today’s world. So, which are the best tools to take advantage of?

An OCR tool can help you stand out in many ways. That’s one of the main reasons this industry is worth more than 8.9 billion now. From students to professionals, OCR has something for everybody. But what exactly is OCR?

How does it work? And who should use OCR tools? We’ll find the answer to these questions today and suggest the 5 best OCR tools available today for free. So, let’s begin.

What Is OCR?

Optical Character Recognition, or OCR for short, is a process by which text images or scanned documents are converted into machine-encoded text. In other words, OCR is the process of converting an image of text into an editable document.

OCR technology has been around since the 1970s, but it was mainly used by large corporations and universities until recently. Today, OCR technology is used by a wide range of businesses and industries because it allows them to digitize their records quickly, easily, and at a low cost.

Nowadays, OCR software is used to convert paper documents into digital formats. It can also be used to extract data from images or other sources like audio recordings. These OCR tools are used in many industries, including healthcare, law enforcement, finance, and education.

One of the most common uses for OCR is to convert paper-based documents into digital data. The software can automatically identify and extract text in images, which can then be edited and converted to PDFs.

How Does An OCR Tool Work?

OCR engines are software programs that store fonts and text types, then match patterns with AI algorithms to scan each character. OCR stands for optical character recognition, basically converting scanned images of text into editable and searchable digital text.

The engine of an OCR tool is made up of AI-based algorithms that scan each character and matches it with the corresponding pattern. The patterns are matched with additional Artificial Intelligence algorithms, which can be seen as patterns themselves.

Once done, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) converts images of text into machine-encoded text. It is a technique used by computers to read and process the information on said images. It includes printed documents, pictures taken of documents, or simply images of typewritten text.

A common type of technology found in the engine of an OCR includes:

• IWR – Intelligent character recognition
• ICR – Intelligent character recognition (used in cases where characters or words are distorted)
• OMR – Optical mark recognition, used for identifying patterns and marks, such as punctuations or mathematical equations
• OWR – Optical word recognition

These sub-branches of OCR work together to present the image that you see once an OCR tool scans the document.

Who Should Use OCR Tools?

Anyone who needs to extract information from images or documents can use OCR tools. Therefore, if you’re one of the following groups, then you need OCR:

Professionals

Professional writers such as academic or SEO writers need OCR many times. To extract information and scan their older works, notes, etc.

Students

Perhaps students have the most use for OCR, as they can use it for various purposes. The possibilities are endless, from extracting the necessary information from documents to taking the necessary information from books.

Businesses

Businesses can also use OCR extensively to store data and save a bunch of time. Moreover, indexing data can help save them a lot of time, as OCR’s extracted text is editable and searchable.

5 Free Online Tools To Extract Text From Images

The best kind of tool is the one that makes any task easy. While there’s no rocket science behind OCR, some of the tools today just aren’t capable of making it work properly. Therefore, we prioritized finding tools that help you effectively extract text from image using OCR. So, here are our five picks:

1.    Image To Text

Imagetotext.Info is one of the leading OCR tools available today. Offering outstanding OCR technology, this tool is ideal for all sorts of users. From taking text from scanned documents to scanning distorted images of content, it can help you extract text from any image.

Besides that, the UI of this image to text converter is exceedingly easy. Therefore, you won’t have any trouble using it to generate content from any image you deem fit. These are the factors that earn it the first spot on our list.

2.    Img2text

Img2Text is yet another stellar option for you. This tool is not only easy to use but also easy on the eyes. Besides that, it uses the most advanced OCR tech and AI algorithms to churn out text from your images.

Our second pick isn’t only a great option, it’s free too. We tried for 10+ images, but it didn’t ask for any premium packages. Therefore, it’s safe to assume it’s free and can be used for as many turns as you like.

3.    Docsumo

Docomo’s OCR tool is one of its best offerings. Docomo is known for offering remarkable tools, and the website delivers yet another great tool for writers and students. This OCR Scanner allows you to upload the file or simply drag and drop it inside your browser. 

Once done, the OCR process is quite rapid and allows you to scan from any document or image conveniently.

4.    Branah

Branah.com’s Image to text converter is perhaps the one with the most options. While it doesn’t offer any UI design whatsoever, its simplicity is perhaps the reason behind its effectiveness.

Allowing you to upload a file of approximately 16MB, this tool allows you to scan documents and images quite effectively. This makes it our fourth pick for you to scan your images for text.

5.    Cardscanner

CardScanner.CO is another outstanding OCR tool. This tool also keeps things simple but employs the best OCR technology to enable the users to extract text from images.

On top of that, you can simply paste the link of the image you wish to extract text from. Therefore, it’s yet another fine tool you can use to scan your images.

Conclusion

These are some of the best tools available today for text extraction. All these tools can help you get editable texts from images or scanned documents. So, pick the one that you think is ideal for your needs.