OCR (Optical Character Recognition)

OCR is the technology that reads the text off a scanned page, turning a picture of a document into words a computer can search and edit.

OCR stands for optical character recognition.

It is the technology that reads the text off a scanned page and turns a picture of a document into words a computer can search, copy and edit.

Without it, a scan is only an image.

The words are visible to a person but invisible to a search, so a folder of scanned invoices cannot be searched by supplier name or amount.

With it, the same scan becomes a searchable PDF.

Staff find a document by typing a word from inside it rather than opening files one at a time.

OCR is built into most business grade multifunction devices at the scan step, so the conversion happens on the machine rather than needing separate software on a desktop.

Accuracy depends on the original.

Clean printed text scans reliably.

Faint carbon copies, heavy handwriting and skewed pages are where errors appear.