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Sometimes, we need to extract the content from the scanned PDF files to text, and that's when PDF to text OCR functionality comes in very handy. OCR acronym for Optical Character Recognition. Many PDF programs come with the OCR feature, which makes scanned PDF documents searchable and editable.

• Ocr Scan Mac

List of 3 Best OCR Mac Software. There is a wide choice of free OCR software available. Here we look at some of the leading examples. PDFelement Pro for Mac (10.15 Catalina included) PDFelement Pro. Is an application dedicated to OCR, which allows you to create fully searchable PDF, rich text file, HTML and plain text files. Mac OCR software are often slightly more limited than their PC counterparts, but this. Contact Us for FREE Consultation on Your OCR Project. Look at most relevant Chinese ocr app free mac websites out of 1.4 Million at KeywordSpace.com. Chinese ocr app free mac found at pdf.wondershare.com, geckoandfly.com, itunes.apple.com and etc. Apr 10, 2020 LEADTOOLS OCR App is without the best OCR Software for Mac Users. It is a free application to perform optical character acknowledgment on pictures. The OCR App by LEADTOOLS is created by LEAD Technologies, Inc. For Mac OS X 10.10 or later. It can separate content from pictures and convert pictures to different record designs.

If it's your very first time looking for the best free PDF OCR solution out there, we can understand how challenging it can be. But no worries!! This post will introduce the top free PDF OCR tools and how to OCR a PDF on Windows and Mac.

Best Free PDF OCR Software for Windows and Mac

There is abundant third-party software on Windows and Mac. Come and find the best tool for you to OCR a PDF.

EaseUS PDF Editor

EaseUS PDF Editor is an excellent PDF OCR software. This program can recognize and convert image-based PDF to an editable format and accurately detect and convert as many as 29 languages, such as English, French, German, Japanese, etc.

What's more, this Windows PDF editor enables you to edit and manage your PDF files like below:

• Insert, delete, reorder, extract, crop, or rotate PDF pages with ease
• Add comment, lines, or highlight PDF documents
• Add or remove password from PDF
• Sign your PDF effortlessly

Want to explore more information? Just click the below button to get it. And there is a tutorial that guides you to OCR a PDF using this tool, and you can follow it to use the OCR feature easily.

Step 1. Click Create and choose From file from the top left corner

If you want to OCR from an existing PDF file, click from the File option on the top left corner to start the process.

Step 2. Click OCR on the toolbar

After clicking OCR on the menu, select the language, then wait for a couple of seconds.

Step 3. Edit your PDF as you wish

You can use crop, rotate, combine, etc. features according to your needs. There are several features, and it allows you to manage this process easily and effortlessly.

Step 4. Click Save to keep the changes

When you are finished with editing, click save to keep the changes. You can also click save as and type a new file name if you want to keep the old version unchanged.

Adobe Acrobat DC

With its OCR functionality, you can easily convert your scanned PDFs or images into editable and searchable documents. It can perform OCR on PDFs that contain vector art, images, hidden text, or a blend of these elements.

Above all, the OCR tool in Adobe Acrobat DC offers many editing features, including text recognition, combining files, adding comments, and more.

Pros:

• Support cutting and pasting the text into other apps
• Work with many languages
• Accurately match fonts
• A free trial is available

Cons:

• Lots of features can overwhelm beginners

URL: https://acrobat.adobe.com/us/en/acrobat/how-to/ocr-software-convert-pdf-to-text.html

PDF OCR X

You can also count on PDF OCR X to help you convert scanned PDF documents into searchable PDFs or text documents with ease. It comes with advanced OCR functionality to extract the text from PDFs, even if it is in an image.

Above all, this PDF OCR-free solution is exclusively designed to handle PDFs created using a scan-to-PDF tool.

Pros:

• Drag and drop functionality to upload documents
• Able to convert PDFs to both text or searchable PDFs
• Support JPEG, PNG, BMP, and more image formats
• Support more than 60 languages

Cons:

• Lack editing features

URL: https://solutions.weblite.ca/pdfocrx/index.php

Readiris

When looking for a PDF to Word OCR solution, Readris serves the purpose best. Supporting both Windows and Mac, the tool can convert PDFs, texts, and images in a scanned document to modify in the format of your preference, including Word.

Its new added features such as a new recognition engine, new user interface, and faster document management make it even more remarkable as a PDF OCR solution or even more.

Pros:

• Various editing features are available
• User-friendly interface
• Open files faster

Cons:

• Lack a forever-free version

URL: https://www.irislink.com/zh-Hans-chn/c1810/IRIS---The-World-leader-in-OCR--PDF-and-Portable-scanner.aspx?

PDFMate PDF Converter

PDFMate PDF Converter entails advanced OCR technology that can help you convert PDFs to editable documents without any hassle. You can extract images and text from image-based PDFs and convert them into selectable and editable text or work files.

Besides the OCR functionality, the software has so much to offer, such as merging and creating PDF, encrypted converted files, customizing layout, and more.

Pros:

• Convert scanned documents to editable ones with OCR
• Support converting PDF to TXT, DOC, and other formats
• Add permission password to documents
• Simple and easy to use

Cons:

• Some crash problems during conversion processes

URL: https://www.pdfmate.com/pdf-converter-free.html

Best 3 Free PDF OCR Online Tools

For those who aren't willing to download software on the computer, the online OCR tools in this section may be the best choices.

OnlineOCR.net

Suppose you don't want to install any program on your system for PDF to word OCR, no worries. With OnlineOCR.net, you can get the job done without installing any tool on your computer. It can recognize characters and text from scanned PDF and convert them into the editable doc format.

It is a completely free PDF OCR online service that even comes with a guest mode, which implies there is no need to register to use it.

Pros:

• Support converting scanned PDFs to editable DOC format
• Work even without registration
• Convert PDF to Word, text, or excel format
• Support many languages

Cons:

• Support file size maximum up to 15 MB

URL: https://www.onlineocr.net/

ABBYY FineReader Online

ABBYY FineReader Online is another online OCR tool designed to help scan and convert PDF documents into Word and many other editable formats. It even supports import and export documents to cloud storage services such as OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox.

The tool will keep converted files in the cloud for around 14 days, giving you enough time to download and share your files during the period.

Pros:

• Support many input and output file formats
• Export a converted document to popular cloud storage services
• Easy to use
• Able to convert scanned PDF to text OCR

Cons:

• Require registration

URL: https://finereaderonline.com/en-us/Tasks/Create

PDF2Go

PDF2Go is also an amazing PDF OCR online tool you can use to convert scanned files to text so that you can edit with ease. You can drag and drop your file or upload it from cloud storage. With PDF2Go, you don't have to copy the text manually, as this PDF OCR free tool will handle this job for you.

Above all, it works with all web browsers out there.

Pros:

• Convert scanned documents to word with OCR
• Support both DOC & DOCX and text format
• Work on a smartphone as well
• No registration is required

Cons:

• Lack support for uploading a file from the OneDrive service

URL: https://www.pdf2go.com/pdf-to-word

How to OCR a PDF?

As mentioned above, we'll help you learn how to OCR a PDF on Windows and Mac, and it's time. We will use Adobe Acrobat DC to walk you through how to OCR a scanned PDF to have an editable copy of your document.

Step 1. In Adobe Acrobat for PC or Mac, open your scanned PDF file.

Step 2. Tap 'Edit PDF' in the right place. The Adobe Acrobat will automatically perform OCR to your file and make it editable.

Step 3. Tap the text element you would like to edit and begin typing.

Step 4. Finally, select 'File' > 'Save As' and enter a new name for your editable file.

Conclusion

That's all on PDF OCR free tools. We have covered tools that really help to OCR a PDF to word or text on Windows and Mac with ease.

It's time for you to make a selection. Our advice is to pick EaseUS PDF Editor to get the job done.

Free PDF OCR Solutions FAQs

If you still have problems with the PDF OCR feature, those FAQs may help you.

1. How to OCR my PDF to word?

For PDF to word OCR, all you need to do is upload your scanned PDF document and choose the output file format as Word/DOC/DOCX while using any PDF OCR tool.

2. How to OCR my PDF to editable text?

Like PDF to word OCR, you need to select an output file format as .txt while using any PDF OCR tool to PDF to text OCR.

3. How to OCR my PDF to Excel?

The best way to OCR your PDF to excel is to use an online OCR service like ABBYY FineReader Online. It will provide you with an option to choose '.xlsx' as your output format.

A lot of times you’ll need a tool that can convert images or your handwriting into a Text file. This can be achieved using a Free OCR Software. But, finding the right OCR tool can be a tough task as there are many options available. Most of the available options either don’t work up to the expectations or require you to spend money.

While there are some OCR software available that offer the best services for absolutely free. I’ve handpicked all such tools and will present them to you in this post. Here, you will find the 17 Best Free OCR Software or Online OCR Tools that you can use to convert pictures into text.

Contents

• 1 Best Free OCR Softwares (Optical Character Recognition Software)

Best Free OCR Softwares (Optical Character Recognition Software)

OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. Some people also call it as Optical Character Reader. It is a technology that lets you convert images to printed text electronically. OCR software is a tool that is able to analyze an image or document, compare it with fonts stored on their database, and note features typical to characters. In this way, the image file is converted to a printable text. Some softwares even use spell checkers and other advanced tools to guess words that can’t be recognized normally.

There are many OCR software available on the web. But, most of them are not much accurate. And, the ones that are accurate demand to much money for their services. However, some of them are hidden gems. They provide the best services with demanding little to no money. I’ll introduce to them here. Let’s take a look at the 12 best free OCR software of the present time.

1. LightPDF

LightPDF is an online tool that lets you convert scanned PDF files into editable text formats. You can also save and manage them accordingly. It allows you to add files in a single click and you can select multiple languages for text recognition. Additionally, this tool also provides encryption to the texts so you won’t feel vulnerable to cyber attacks.

The limit to scan files is up to 30 MB. You can convert the images and PDFs into PPT, TXT, RTF, and other similar formats.

2. Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MODI)

MODI or Microsoft Office Document Imaging is the official OCR from Microsoft that you can use to convert images into editable text. It even allows you to convert handwritten text into the printed one but the accuracy may not be near 100%.

Still, it is able to reach the nearest to the actual script. Using this tool is also very simple. Just open an image using MODI and choose the Recognize Text Using OCR option present with the little eye icon. To export your converted files, click on the Send Text to Word. That’s it.

3. Symphony

Symphony is the next free OCR software on our list. It provides a back-end OCR engine that makes sure that the text you can is searchable. You can use it to extract text from PDF, TIFF, emails, etc and save them as printed text. The converted file is also editable.

You can also integrate the tool with SharePoint and ShareFile to manage the results better and effectively.

4. Microsoft OneNote

Microsoft OneNote has a built-in OCR tool with it to convert scanned images and PDF files into editable text. It is one of the best options while finding free OCR software on Windows.

The only limitation with this tool is that it doesn’t support tables and columns. Other than that, you won’t face any problem with OneNote. To use it, just insert an image in OneNote, right-click on the image and choose ‘Copy Text from Picture’ and wait for the results. That’s it.

5. Nanonets

NanoNets is an online, free OCR software that allows you to convert the images and PDF files into editable text. You can use this tool to convert over 100 scanned documents at the same time into formats like XML, PDF, and many more.

You can also specify the category of text to get very accurate results. This tool is even able to detect your handwritten texts very accurately. If you are looking to extract information from images, this is the best one to use.

6. VueScan

VueScan is the next OCR software on our list. This tool is available to use on both Mac and Windows computers. You can use it to convert the images, PDF files, and other documents into printable and editable text files.

It offers support for more than 32 languages. You can even find language-specific files on their official website.

7. OCR.space

OCR.space is one more Free online OCR tool that allows you to convert images having text into an editable text file using their engine. You can also extract and edit text from PDF files.

This tool lets you select a specific language for the document so you get the most accurate conversion. The best part is that they don’t even store any of your private data on their server.

8. PDFelement

PDFelement is another free OCR software that you can use to scan and convert PDF or JPEG files into TXT or other text file formats. It is able to accurately recognize the text available in your documents.

You can even use it to scan files from Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint directly. It has an amazing set of tools to help you achieve the purpose.

9. Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat is one of the most popular reading and OCR software for Windows and Mac systems. You can use it to scan images, PDF, and other documents to recognize and convert them into text files.

It even provides custom fonts that look very similar to the printouts. You can directly export the file to Microsoft Office and work on it from there. It has all the required tools that you’ll ever need.

10. i2OCR

i2OCR is one more online, free OCR software that lets you upload images or PDF files and convert them into editable texts. You can even use image URL with this tool and you’ll get a very accurate recognition. It also supports PDF files with multi-column text and is able to recognize more than 33 languages.

11. Soda PDF

Soda PDF is the next name on our list. It is a great OCR software that lets you convert paper documents and scanned images into PDF or TXT files. You can also edit and manage the recognized and converted files.

It is even able to recognize text from multiple documents simultaneously. This tool is able to work with the internet and without the internet as well.

12. Cvisiontech

Cvisiontech is a well-known OCR tool that allows you to convert images and PDF files into editable or printable text. It supports uploading multiple images and supports most of the mainstream file formats like JPEG, PNG, PDF, etc. The only limitation is that you can only upload files less than 100 MB. However, I won’t consider this a limitation as you wouldn’t ever need to scan and convert encyclopedias.

Bonus: More Free OCR Software to Convert Images into Text

Here are 5 More Free OCR Tools that you can check out;

Final Words

Ocr Scan Mac

These are the best free OCR software that you can use going forward. If you know about some more good options, let me know using the comment box. Or, if you need help with operating any of the tools mentioned in this post, you can ask me to guide you. I’ll be glad to help you more.