Companies are generating and storing more and more digital documents. However, most of these files are difficult to process... Optical character recognition (OCR) technology makes it possible to transform these scanned documents into text that can be edited and consulted, making it easier to manage and find information. Find out why and how you can adopt OCR in your business!
Optical character recognition definition
Optical character recognition enables documents in PDF or image format containing text to be converted into editable text. In other words, instead of having to manually rewrite the content of a scanned document, OCR does all the work for you. It identifies areas of text, extracts them and converts them into digital text. You can then copy, search, modify or reuse this textual content in other business software.
Here's how OCR software works:
- Acquire the PDF file: It scans documents and converts them into binary data. In other words, it breaks them down into light areas (the background, images, etc.) and dark areas (those with text).
- Text recognition: Using a pattern-matching and shape-recognition system, the software recognises characters.
- Text extraction: After analysing the text, the system converts it into a text file.
Why is it useful for a company?
Most business tasks involve receiving printed or scanned media. Contracts, invoices, legal documents... these are all papers that take time to manage. The reason for this is that these documents require human intervention to be used correctly. Important information often has to be searched for and rewritten in other business software (EDM, ERP, CRM, etc.). OCR technology solves this problem.
Let's say you want to digitise a paper contract. You have two options: you can spend countless hours typing it in by hand, or you can transform it into a digital format in just a few minutes using OCR technology.
OCR is mainly used for :
- Archiving: to transform paper archives into digital databases that can be accessed at the click of a button.
- Electronic document management (EDM): to make multiple PDF files searchable and accessible via search tabs.
- Data extraction: To extract information (names, numbers, amounts, etc.) from forms, invoices or even business cards.
In short, OCR makes it possible to automate, speed up and optimise the management of digital documents.
What are the benefits?
Better document management
One of the main benefits of OCR? Making it easier to digitise and archive physical documents. Thanks to this recognition technology, businesses can transform their paper documents into searchable digital files. This saves storage space in your offices, improves data security and makes it easier to access. Yes, because thanks to OCR, you can carry out keyword searches on thousands of documents. All at the click of a button.
Time saving
As you will have realised, one of the main advantages of OCR is that you can quickly find information in large volumes of documents. Enter a keyword and find relevant results in just a few seconds. Gone are the long hours spent scouring PDF pages looking for a single piece of data.
Optical character recognition can also be used to automate processes such as data extraction. Instead of manually entering information, OCR systems do it for you. This speeds up the processing of PDF documents.
Security and compliance
Finally, optical character recognition replaces manual data entry. So you minimise human error, such as typos or oversights.
PDFSmart, the right PDF OCR solution for you
Thanks to its text recognition functionality, PDFSmart can convert your documents into editable, searchable text files. All you have to do is import your initial document into our web module, then wait a few seconds. That's it, your text is ready! Now you can edit or copy it as you wish. Our character recognition module works on JPG, JPEG, PNG and PDF files.
In conclusion
Optical character recognition (OCR) is a must-have technology if you want to optimise the management of your scanned documents. It improves organisation, reduces the risk of errors and enables you to find information quickly in vast volumes of data.
Ready to take action? Try PDFSmart's OCR solution for 7 days!
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