Text recognition with Windows: 3 OCR programs compared
A major hurdle in information technology is automatic text recognition, or OCR (Optical Character Recognition) for short. There are some programs for Windows that recognize characters from raster graphics and can thus convert files from optical input devices (scanner, camera) into text. In this article we compare 3 OCR programs for Windows.
The lean text recognition tool FreeOCR
"FreeOCR" is a very lean tool that focuses on text recognition.
- Features: The program recognizes texts from PDF files and images. The text can then be exported to a Word document or in Microsoft's well-known Rich Text Format (RTF).
- Handling: After starting you either open a PDF file or an image. The PDF or the image is displayed in the left part of the program and the recognized text that you can copy on the right. The program can also control your scanner. For text recognition, set the language in the top right.
- "FreeOCR" recognizes texts for free. However, the user interface is only available in English.
The top dog in text recognition: Abbyy FineReader Pro
The "Abbyy FineReader Pro" is one of the best programs for automatic text recognition.
- Features: Similar to "FreeOCR", the "Abbyy FineReader Pro" recognizes your PDFs, scans or images. The program also gets along very well with cloud services like Dropbox and Google Drive.
- Handling: At the first start you see the complete range of functions. The program automatically recognizes all text passages and formatting. You can edit the recognized text directly in the program. With a click on the Word symbol, the entire document can be saved, even with the recognized images.
- You can test the "Abbyy FineReader Pro" free of charge for 30 days. Then you get the full range of functions for about 130 euros. In contrast to the free alternative FreeOCR, the Abbyy FineReader Pro has a German user interface.
A free alternative: Free OCR to Word
"Free OCR to Word" is structured similarly to FreeOCR.
- Features: As the name suggests, the program can export the texts of certain files in Word. Numerous image formats are supported, but no PDF files.
- "Free OCR to Word" is available free of charge and has only an English user interface. When installing, pay attention to the programs that the manufacturer would like to install.
