In our society today, few situations require a physical document to be at hand. Some legal documents would have to be kept in hard copies for them to remain valid.
However, when a physical document is unnecessary, it is best to keep information in digital format using an OCR scanner. The advantages of digitization over physical copies are too numerous to ignore.
Soft copies are easily accessible, digitally transferable, and easier to read. They can also be easily stored in hard drives that will not be vulnerable to destruction by pests and time. Fortunately, many businesses are aware of these advantages.
Most businesses are now keeping documents in digital formats. Many have also begun utilizing OCR solutions and OCR scanning software to convert hard copies to digital files.
What Is An OCR Scanner?
An OCR scanner is a device that employs optical character recognition (OCR) technology to scan text and convert them to digital formats. The documents in a machine-readable text can be easily edited and explored.
The number of businesses using OCR technology is massive and getting more significant daily. According to Grandview Research, the global OCR software market was valued at $8.93 billion in 2021. This number is astounding, but it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.4% from 2022 to 2030.
That is not surprising considering how an OCR text scanner can singlehandedly make record-keeping easier. These programs can scan text from many file types, including JPGs and PDFs, and produces a machine-readable copy for your ease. That would eliminate the need to input the text manually. Calling this scanner an image to text converter would not be wrong.
How Does OCR Scanning Work?
An OCR software uses cutting-edge OCR technology to convert text to a machine-readable format. It uses a three-stage system to extract the text from the original material and give out the appropriate results. The stages are image pre-processing, AI text recognition, and post-processing.
- Image Pre-processing
At this stage, the OCR scanner edits the image to bring it to the best state for the OCR text recognition technology to work. Some pre-processing steps include:
- De-skewing: The OCR Scanning software may have to perform this action when the image is not properly aligned horizontally and vertically. That ensures that the image is in order before the text recognition.
- De-speckle: This algorithm helps the OCR software smoothen edges and remove spots that would obstruct the text recognition
- Binarization: This process turns the image black and white to help differentiate between the text and the background.
- Segmentation: The image is subsequently divided into different pieces of text to aid text recognition.
- AI Text Recognition
After pre-processing, the OCR scanning software begins to evaluate the dark regions of the image. It compares the images’ strokes with the samples in its database to detect the character.
That could be through pattern recognition or feature identification. If there are new characters that don’t match the samples in the database, the image to text converter tries something else. The number of curving, angled, or crossing lines can indicate to the OCR software what character it is.
- Post-processing
At this stage, specific processes are undertaken to improve the precision of the OCR scanner. OCR technology uses a lexicon, or a list of words, to restrict the results of a scan to a specific character.
These lexicons might include all terms in a language or a list of words acceptable for a certain type of text.
Some OCR solutions also use specific algorithms to correct grammatical errors when they scan text. You can kill these two birds with one stone with innovative OCR technology.
What Are The Common Applications for OCR Scanning?
OCR solutions have become a lot more important for businesses everywhere, thanks to their ease of usage. These image to text converters are employed to surmount certain challenges in different industries.
Many businesses have begun patronizing OCR software online to ease their record-keeping workload and aid other business areas. These include:
- Office Record-Keeping
The primary use of image to text converters is in the records portion of businesses. These processes usually require manual input of the records to be kept. That is especially notable when the documents are in hard copy.
OCR pdf scanners and OCR text recognition software can help with translating these data into machine-readable for accessible records. These OCR solutions can create a searchable database to maneuver through the documents quickly and extract specific information.
With technology like Lumin PDF, which allows businesses to scan text, merge PDF, and access OCR software online, businesses save costs. These expenses are avoided by eliminating storage expenses and increasing records’ efficiency.
- Artificial Intelligence Solutions
Businesses are learning to incorporate artificial intelligence into their activities to increase productivity. An OCR text scanner or image to text converter is one of the easiest ways.
With these OCR solutions available online, businesses can optimize their businesses with AI at little cost.
- Translation
Businesses that transact in multiple countries might have documents in foreign languages. These companies usually employ translator software for their dealings.
However, this would require inputting the phrases to be translated into the translator software. That can be cumbersome if the work is bulky.
These businesses surmount this problem by incorporating OCR scanning software. These OCR solutions can quickly scan and translate text in different languages using text recognition.
Conclusion
Every tiny improvement in the efficiency of your business can give you an edge over your competitors. Taking advantage of artificial intelligence by implementing OCR solutions in your activities might be the boost you need. This will only work if you use the right tool.
LuminPDF is a service that gives you access to OCR software online without taking any space in your device. It has many features, which include a PDF redaction tool, an OCR text scanner, and cross-platform capabilities with real-time sync for easier collaboration.
This tool puts the power to edit and merge PDF in your hand. With LuminPDF, you can optimize your business activities to set it up for massive growth.