In the present age where everything is being digitalized, we have to come across a lot of digital documents on daily basis. No doubt, this has helped us a lot in sharing documents with anyone around the globe.
It is not a matter of days or months like in the past to share some educational or business-related documents. But when it comes to editing something from the scanned document, it would be the toughest task ever.
What is the OCR algorithm and where it is used? Share on X
What is OCR?
OCR is a specific technology using which you can design software that can convert electronic data into an editable format. A tool that has been working on the basis of this technology recognizes the characters printed on a scanned document.
The OCR technology helps us a lot in sharing data easily with a few simple clicks. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology allows you to analyze handwritten scanned documents and then convert the data into digital text format.
This technology works by using different technologies and algorithms to convert printed data into editable digital text.
OCR technology has brought up a great revolution in today’s documentation and data sharing field. Everyone, from student to teacher, from businessman to a clerk, from bank to companies is getting benefit from this application today.
Uses of OCR technology
It is really hard to sum up the uses of OCR technology in a single article. Here we are going to discuss some major uses of this handy technology.
In education
If we talk about the field that has benefited the most from the online OCR programs in the past few months, the education department stands in the top position.
OCR technology helps the students as well as teachers in the present time of pandemic when education is mostly shifted to online mode.
Students are mostly getting their notes, assignments, and other essential papers related to their syllabus in PDF format. It has become difficult for them to edit these documents to complete their assignments in time.
By using this technology, they can now convert the whole document into editable text and then make changes as they need.
Sometimes they get pictures of notes which are written in bad handwriting. In such cases, it looks tricky to understand what actually has been written on it. This technology is also beneficial in this regard as it can also scan these documents and convert the text into an editable format.
A student can easily then read and understands the topic written on these notes and make assignments easily. In turn, it has become easy for a student to get notes in any format and use them as per his requirements.
For translation
The students of higher classes often face a problem when they have to come across a book or notes which are not in their native language. As they are given a short deadline to complete and submit the thesis, they do not have much time to translate the whole book and then read it to make notes.
It is also impossible to type the complete book again and then translate it into a language that they can understand. In this case, a program based on OCR technology helps you a lot in completing the task within a few minutes.
You can take pictures of the whole book and then by using this technology extract the whole data into the editable text format. By copy-pasting that text, you can translate the book into your native language.
Now you are all set to read the book and make notes to complete your assignment in time. This technique is also used by businesses when they work worldwide. They can translate documents into their language and then can complete orders properly in time.
OCR has made it easy to store documents.
If you ever visited a government office or a place where documents are used in bulk, you have surely seen a bundle of files there. Do you really think it is easy to take care of these documents?
It will be very difficult to keep these documents in the proper condition. Secondly, it will not be an easy task to find an older document when needed. There is also the risk that documents may be lost often.
Optical Character Recognition technology makes it very easy to store documents in a small space where these documents are safe for years. With the help of this technology, you can easily convert these documents into digital files and then save them on any hard disk.
In this way, your documents will be safe for a long time. You can easily access any document whenever you need it by simply searching your database where you think you have saved them for later use.
OCR has made it easy to carry files.
Do you work with a multinational company? Are you worried to carry heavy files with you to a meeting held somewhere else in the world? If you are having such issues, don’t worry because OCR has made the whole process easy and fast.
This technology has done work nicely to make this task easy. You only need to scan the documents that you want to present in the meeting to your boss or anyone else.
It will take a few minutes but a little space from your portable storage device. After doing this, you can move towards your destination.
Before you go to the meeting, you can easily open that file and get it converted into an editable format. You can also make changes in the document as per requirements using this technology.
For example, if you have a document with another date and time, you can change it instead of overwriting the previous one. In short, it will enable you to change the documents easily with a few clicks of your mouse and keyboard.
Lastly, you can get those pages or documents printed and carry them wherever you want. In this way, you only have to carry your essentials with you instead of heavy files on a meeting.
Final wrapping
By reading the above blog, you have learned how much effective OCR has become for sharing documents or editing documents. It has made the process of editing simple and easy even on pages that you can’t imagine. Yes, you may not have any idea about the editing of text in a single scanned document. But you can do this task easily now using this technology.
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General FAQs
The tesseract algorithm is available on Google Code, and is one of the best open source OCR out there.
It is also known as text recognition. In short, optical character recognition software helps convert images or physical documents into a searchable form. Examples of OCR are text extraction tools, PDF to . txt converters, and Google’s image search function.
The OCR technology enables you to convert that frozen text into machine-readable data so that it is searchable. This means OCR enables you to find the specific information in your documents that can be copied and pasted for other uses.
