op·ti·cal char·ac·ter rec·og·ni·tion
ˈäptəkəl ˈker(ə)ktər ˌrekəɡˈniSHən/
noun
  1. the identification of printed characters using photoelectric devices and computer software.
OCR
 

As the business world continues to move closer toward the paper-free office, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is one of the technological advancements helping make this transition feasible and painless. OCR uses computer algorithms to convert scanned images of handwritten or printed text into machine-readable format. The process digitizes printed text into word processing files, making them easy to edit, search, and store.

OCR can take a lengthy document, such as a book, and quickly convert it into an electronic file of searchable text, eliminating the need to retype the document page by page. This technology can prove to be a powerful tool in any office. Here are some of the advantages of OCR:

Improved efficiency – The ability to search through digital content immediately increases both the efficiency and effectiveness of your staff. By converting material into electronic and searchable text, you’ll no longer have to spend precious time manually looking through documents and files for particular information. OCR enables you to do these searches electronically by keywords or phrases, saving enormous amounts of precious time.

Editable text – Whereas the typical scanned document is an image capture of an original document, OCR enables users to easily edit or manually correct the text in a scanned document. Those useful copy and paste tools that are so helpful in everyday work can also be utilized on these converted files.

Greater accessibility – Once your documents and files are converted to digital files, they can be displayed online and conveniently shared electronically between employees and departments.

Reduced space – Scanning your documents and storing them digitally takes up far less storage space than the hard copy originals. Storing your files and records more compactly will provide much needed space in your office, and reduce storage costs.

Contact us today to learn more about how OCR can bring your scanned documents to life and visit our website to learn more about our Document Imaging Solutions!