5 Best OCR Software for Windows 10 | Pros and Cons

OCR applications convert your handwritten or scanned documents into editable text files. Most OCR applications work well with scanned documents.

But there are very few OCR applications that handle handwritten text gracefully. Now, if you're looking for the best OCR programs , then here's a list of the 5 best for Windows that you can try.

How do OCR programs work?

In basic terms, OCR software examines a scanned image and translates the text it contains into an editable file . Early OCR systems translated the text into a single font and size.

Today's ambitious programs attempt to duplicate not only fonts, but also complex layout features such as columns, tables, headers and footers, and even graphics.

There are many different types of pattern recognition schemes, and each OCR software uses a different set of patterns and implements them in different ways. However, one thing is true for all of them, OCR software reads text one character at a time.

5 Best OCR Software for Windows

If you are looking for a good OCR program but don't know how to choose it, we have a list of excellent OCR programs for Windows that you should consider:

1. One Note

Windows has built in microsoft one note to take notes. However, One Note has an additional feature that works like OCR. All you have to do is copy and paste the image or the scanned documents in the note.

Now, give it a couple of minutes to process the image. Finally, when you right-click on the image, you will get an option called “Copy Text from Image.”

If you don't see the "Copy text from image" option , please wait a moment. OneNote is still processing the image and converting it to text. Even after some time, if the option still doesn't appear, OneNote was unable to process the image. You can wait a little longer or try pasting the image again.

One Note is one of the OCR programs that can effortlessly convert scanned or printed documents, but it fails when it comes to handwritten texts.

Pros:

• Free
• Precise for PDF files

Cons:

• Waste of time
• Does not work with handwritten or cursive text

2 Google Drive

Google Drive is another OCR program that provides the easiest way to convert your documents into editable text. While Google Keep also has an OCR feature that is good with lists and business cards, you don't get Google Doc support. So, we'll stick to Google Drive's OCR feature here.

This would be the most convenient way; all you have to do is "Upload the image to Google Drive ." After that, simply right-click on it, navigate to " Open with," and click on "Google Docs ." Now, depending on the size and complexity of the file, Google Docs will convert the image to text.

Converting printed documents works better than handwritten text. For some reason, handwritten text seems to have strange text formatting and size. You can change that by clearing the formatting of all text after conversion.

The only problem with Google Drive OCR conversion is that it comes with many restrictions . The uploaded image or document cannot be larger than 2 MB. The document must be right-side up, and if it isn't, you must change the orientation. This clearly means you can't convert large PDFs or your entire handwritten library.

Pros:

• Fast
• Precise for PDF files and handwritten notes

Cons:

• No batch file processing
• Maximum limit of 2 MB

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3.FreeOCR

FreeOCR is an extremely popular OCR recognition application for Windows. The OCR application inherently uses Google's optical recognition engine called tesseractThe FreeOCR app's user interface is orthodox, which makes sense since it was last updated in 2015.

You get two separate panels for the input image and output text. The top panel has a toolbar with two separate buttons for uploading a PDF or an image. Once you've uploaded your sample, simply click the OCR button in the top toolbar. From the drop-down menu, click "OCR for current page".

You also have the option to batch process OCR for multiple documents . To do this, load all the pages and select "OCR All Pages ." After a few seconds of processing, the application returns the extracted text in the panel on the right. You can choose to copy this text or convert it to an MS Word file or an RTF file (i.e., WordPad). The controls for this are available on the left side of the Output Panel.

FreeOCR supports multiple languages ​​like French, German, Italian, etc. It seems like a nice feature that sets it apart from other OCR programs.

Pros:

• Batch file processing
• Fast
• Accurate for PDF files or scanned documents
• Multiple language support

Cons:

• Poor file management
• Doesn't work with handwritten notes

4. SimpleOCR

SimpleOCR is a document management and OCR offering from Simple Software. It has a complete suite of file management, file scanning and file indexing software.

SimpleOCR is designed for character recognition of handwritten text and scanned documents. SimpleOCR uses its own Fine Reader OCR to process the documents and identify the text.

Initially, you should train the software with your handwritten text or scanned documents from a particular font. It would be easier for the application to understand if you use the same font for most of your documents.

You can convert countless documents and images , but for handwritten documents, you get a 14-day trial. That said, converting PDFs and scanned documents is fast and accurate. File management is impressive, and batch processing works flawlessly.

Pros:

• File management
• Built-in dictionary and autocorrect

Cons:

• Slow and prolonged conversion process
• Inaccurate for handwritten notes

5. Abby Fine Reader Online

Similar to SimpleOCR, Abby fine reader It is also a complete suite of best file management OCR software. However, there is an online web version that performs OCR conversion of documents.

You have to register on the website and you only get 10 free conversions. Abby Fine Reader uses the same FineReader engine as SimpleOCR . This makes the results highly predictable.

You need to upload the file to the web application , or you can choose to connect your Google Drive account to it . Abby Fine also supports a couple of other cloud services like Dropbox and OneDrive. Once you've uploaded the documents, you can proceed with the recognition by clicking the Recognize button.

Pros:

• Intuitive process and fast conversion
• Multiple export options and cloud services
• Batch processing

Cons:

• Doesn't work with handwritten notes

Final words

If you want to choose among the best OCR programs for Windows 10 but don't know which one would be best for you, with this guide we wanted to show you the features, pros and cons of 5 of the best programs of this type so you can make the right choice.