Best OCR software to extract text from images

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by Radu Tyrsina 

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Key notes

  • You can use for your Windows 10 system an OCR software to help you convert images into editable file formats.
  • Choose an OCR software for Windows 10 that supports multiple languages.
  • The best OCR tool for Windows 10 includes multiple editing features, such as the one from Adobe.
  • If you're looking for free OCR software for Windows 10, try the one from Microsoft.
best ocr software

Have you ever tried out ABBYY Fine Reader, the application for desktop that uses optical character recognition technology to convert scanned images into editable file formats?

If the answer is yes, then you will surely want to install these tools that use the same technology to recognize the text within images and allow users to copy and paste it to a new document.

OCR is the abbreviated form for Optical Character Recognition. A cool technology that allows you to convert different types of documents into editable and searchable data.

In this article, we will present to you what is the best Windows 10 OCR software app to use.

What is the best Windows 10 OCR software?

Adobe Acrobat DC Pro

Adobe Acrobat

Edit your scanned documents with ease using Adobe Acrobat. Thanks to its integrated OCR technology, you can extract text and convert scanned documents into editable, searchable PDF files instantly.

When you enable this function, Adobe Acrobat performs OCR on PDFs that contain images, vector graphics, hidden text, or a combination of these items.

By default, OCR uses the language selected in the dialog box to interpret the scanned text. OCR engine uses language-based dictionaries for conversion, so choose the correct language to improve accuracy.

Adobe Acrobat Export PDF supports the following languages for OCR:

Adobe Acrobat supported languages for OCR

The scanning and text recognition using the Searchable Image (Exact) command basically adds an image layer on the original scan with hidden text.

Let’s quickly look at its key features:

  • Instant conversion (automatically extract text from any scanned document or image and convert it to editable text)
  • Text formatting recognition (automatic custom font generation)
  • Seamless integration with Office products (export text to DOCX, PPT, XLS, or TXT file formats)
  • Archive-fit (preserve the exact look and editing restrictions with the smart PDF format that include searchable and editable text)
  • OCR language (picked from default locale)
  • System fonts (the converted text is displayed in an available font that is the closest match to the original used in the scanned page)
  • All pages editable (convert all pages of the current document to editable text in one click)
  • Turn off / disable automatic OCR for scanned documents
  • Batch OCR using (convert any number of image-only PDFs to editable text in one click)
Adobe Acrobat DC Pro

Adobe Acrobat DC Pro

Use one of the best PDF reader software with built-in OCR technology allowing you to create editable documents.
Free trialVisit website

Photo Scan app

Google’s Photo Scan app is available for Windows 10. OCR technology is part of the Universal Windows Platform and many developers started creating applications that extract text from photos.

The Photo Scan for Windows 10 is a free application that supports in-app purchases and comes with many great features.

First of all, once you open a photo using Photo Scan, the application analyzes it and if the image contains any text, it automatically extracts and displays it on the right side.

In addition, you can save the extracted text to Text File Document, Rich Type Format, HTML File Document, CSS and other file formats, or to clipboard.

If you have a picture and want to extract text from it, right-click on it and select Open with, then click Photo Scan. The list of the entire photos collection can be found in the left-pane of Photo Scan.

The Photo Scan app supports also the web camera, and its speech feature can be used to read out all extracted text from an image.

Other features of the Photo Scan app include glare-free scans, smart rotation, and automatic cropping. If you want to get rid of ads, you need to make in-app purchases.

⇒ Download Photo Scan app

There you go, you should be able to choose your weapon when it comes to editing scanned documents with no effort at all.

What tool do you like best? Share your impressions with us in the comments section below.

More about the topics: Adobe Acrobat Reader, OCR software

Radu Tyrsina

Radu Tyrsina Shield

Radu Tyrsina has been a Windows fan ever since he got his first PC, a Pentium III (a monster at that time). For most of the kids of his age, the Internet was an amazing way to play and communicate with others, but he was deeply impressed by the flow of information and how easily you can find anything on the web. Prior to founding Windows Report, this particular curiosity about digital content enabled him to grow a number of sites that helped hundreds of millions reach faster the answer they're looking for.

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