3 Most Important Features in OCR Software

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Important Features

So what are the 3 most important features in OCR Software?  See the list below:

1. Speed - You need to get a character per second, or a pages per minute rating on the software to make sure it can handle your job size.
2. Accuracy - OCR Software does you no good if the output is horrible.  Most engines today are in the 95% accuracy rate if they are given decent documents.
3. PDF Output - PDF is the standard, and a searchable PDF provides great flexibility.

OCR Software and Character Correction

Optical Character Recognition and Character Correction

So what is character correction when associated with OCR?  The OCR process provides the recognition and conversion of images to text, and in this process, there can be many characters that can be misidentified throughout the conversion process.  Typically, document capture applications provide the ability to identify commonly misinterpreted characters through a table of correction mappings.  So lets say a particular zone OCR field was designated as numbers only, and the engine interpreted an "l" for a "1" (that is an l for a one).  The correction piece of the recognition engine can provide logic to the OCR process, and make sure the text is properly interpreted. This can be really important, especially in SharePoint OCR environments where you need searchable PDFs in SharePoint.

This is just one of many ways to improve accuracy, but note you will need the right kind of OCR application that allows this feature to be enabled.

Why use OCR Software to perform full text conversion of images?

OCR Software

When we scan documents, they are just images, pictures of our paper.  For many organizations, this scanned image is exactly what they need, and a little index information about the document is sufficient to provide them with retrieval capability.

So why take the time and spend the money to utilize OCR Software to convert the scanned document to a searchable format?  Below are some reasons to always perform full text OCR of scanned documents:

1. Always provide every means possible for retrieval.  Just using index fields to search for scanned documents may seem like a fantastic idea, but what if the document is misidentified?  Or the indexer enters incorrect information?  Performing a full text OCR of the document can provide an insurance policy that a document can always be found through full text search.
2. Document Capture software today provides fast reliable OCR.  Most capture software on the market provides the ability to automatically convert the documents to searchable format for a small expense.  Some of the engines on the market can do the conversion at 100+ pages per minute, so there is really not much time wasted in the OCR conversion / recognition process.
3. OCR to PDF for a format that contains both image and text in one container.  Adobe provides the PDF image with hidden text option to give you a seachable file format that contains a pristine image.
4. Plan for the worst case.  Audits...legal issues...sometimes you need to search beyond the index fields, and full text can give you the ability to find the needle in the haystack.

OCR applications give you the means and capabilities to convert images to searhcable formats and there are many reasons to do the full text conversion.

OCR Software - Distributed vs. Centralized

OCR Software - Distributed vs. Centralized

Ah, the centralized versus distributed question...it is one that is continually asked in the scanning, capture and document capture space.  Most associate OCR Software with familiar desktop applications like eCopy Desktop, OmniPage, PaperPort, etc.  These provide, in a way, distribution of the overall OCR process to end users.

There are applications on the market that can provide centralized and controlled OCR capabilities, through either a server or a workstation deployment.  One example is PSI:Capture from PSIGEN, and advanced document capture application, that allows centralized OCR processing.  Why would you want to do this?  Well, in most cases, this type of OCR deplyment model is utilized in conjunction with a document capture system, for centralized capture, indexing, QA, OCR and migration to a centralized DM / ECM system.  Typically, these systems give a broad and expansive feature set, providing all different types of OCR functionality.

How fast is OCR Software? OCR Performance Testing

OCR Performance Testing

So which Desktop Optical Character Recognition Software is the fastest? Has the best overall performance when converting images to Word? When converting images to PDF?




I ran some testing with 4 basic desktop OCR applications to see which would have the fastest conversion times. The OCR applications are:



-eCopy Desktop (Uses the ReadIRIS OCR Engine)

-Adobe 8

-Paperport 11

-OmniPage 15



I ran all the tests on a 9 month old laptop, with a Dual Core 2 GHz processor, and 2 GB of memory. I utilized all the "out of the box" settings on the apps, with no performance tuning of settings, and I timed the speed of the applications to convert a 100 page TIFF image to Word and to Adobe Image and Text PDF.



Results of the OCR Speed Test in minutes and seconds(Word/PDF):



eCopy Desktop 4:25/2:58

Adobe 8 3:54/3:22

OmniPage 15 2:16/2:16*

PaperPort 11 2:35**



*With OmniPage you run the conversion process and then save to your preferred format.

**PaperPort just had text conversion capabilities.



I have to note that the eCopy Desktop test can be misleading in that it performs auto-orientation on all the pages before performing OCR. Also note that when evaluating an OCR application, speed is not the only factor. You need to decide up front whether you want speed, accuracy, both, or want to focus on formatting. I will write another article on formatting and which application is best in the near future.

OCR Software versus Document Capture Software

OCR Software versus Document Capture Software

So all OCR Software companies provide the ability to convert scanned files into text or searchable PDFs via the Optical Character Recognition process, but how do I capture/scan the images so the applications can do their conversion?

This is an interesting question.  Let's talk about Document Capture first.  This type of application is built from the ground up to scan/capture documents at a high rate of speed, provide the means to collect information about the documents through a number of means, and then export the document/data to a back end repository.  All document capture companies provide all types of OCR options, and usually OEM their OCR, ICR, OMR components from the major OCR application companies, like:  ABBYY, OpenText, Nuance, ReadSoft, etc.  Most of these companies have diversified their offering to include document capture, but their offerings far way short on the capture side in my opinion...they are OCR companies.

The real goal here is to get the best OCR results possible through a powerful OCR engine, and also minimize your time required to scan and process through the best document capture software.  So, if you are looking to do high volume OCR processing, I highly recommend choosing a capture application that utilizes your OCR engine of choice to get the best of both worlds.  I will write more on this topic in upcoming posts.  If you want some guidance on How to pick the right OCR Software, click on the link text.

Microsoft SharePoint and OCR

Microsoft SharePoint and OCR

Scanning with Microsoft SharePoint is an interesting endeavor, and typically the main reason for this undertaking is to have a searchable body of information.  So what type of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Software can be utilized with SharePoint?   First of all, all the same rules apply in picking the right recognition software to do the conversion from image to text, as outlined in "How do I pick the right OCR Software?".  You need to evaluate what you are trying to accomplish and look at your business process and workflows to get a good idea of how to initiate the conversion process.  Below are some key questions when evaluating a SharePoint OCR Solution.

Are your paper images scanned en masse, through a centralized capture process?

If this is the case, you would typically do all of your OCR processing and recognition in front end document capture software.  These application provide the fastest OCR engines, and their recognition processing time can be anywhere from 100-600 pages per minute, depending on the types of pages you are scanning. 

Do you utilize MFPs / Copiers to scan document to sharepoint?

Most companies are trying to leverage their investment in their copier hardware to provide end users a great scanning and capture onramp to SharePoint.  In this case, you typically want an OCR application that can provide recognition on the fly, and do the conversion process behind the scenes.  Their are many MFP integrated applications on the market that can provide the OCR engine: iCapture, NSI AutoStore, eCopy to name a few.

Do the end users compile, combine and work with documents at their desktops?

In environments where end users are constantly working in their documents, and need desktop scanning access, typically and OCR Desktop application can be the best solution.  These applications can put the control of the conversion process in the end user's hands, and can provide them OCR capability at the click of the mouse.  Some apps in this class are eCopy Paperworks, PaperPort and OmniPage.

Do you want to SharePoint OCR PDFs?
Knowing what format and how you want to search can be critical, and having OCR PDFs in SharePoint can allow for full text search.

All of the OCR Solutions on this page focus on doing the process before the documents hit SharePoint.  I will write an article later on solutions that can OCR documents within SharePoint Libraries later.

What is OCR, ICR and OMR?

What is OCR, ICR and OMR?

In the area of text conversion, there is often confusion on the acronyms that surround the industry, and what each one designates.  Below are some quick overviews of each of the recognition technologies, and what they accomplish:

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Software

OCR Software takes images, and converts them to searchable text.  The output can be a plain text file, or the industry standard today is an image with hidden text PDF.  OCR can also be utilized to extract data from scanned images, providing a means to either harvest information, or create index fields for later search. OCR Software Definition

Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) Software

ICR Software provides the ability to recognize handwritten, or hand printed text.  This process can be extrememly accurate when the printed text is bound by boxes, or combed form fields.  Hanwriting is a little more complex, and typically requires many samples to be accurate. ICR Software Definition

Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) Software

OMR Software, somtimes called "mark sesnse", provides the ability to read checked boxes on forms or documents.  The software senses the difference between an unmarked and marked box using a baseline reading, and then allows the recognition to take place.

Many manufacturers combine all 3 into a single recognition engine that provides powerful analysis capabilities for scanned documents and forms.  OMR Software Definition

OCR Software and Image Processing

OCR Software and Image Processing

Why is image processing so important when utilizing Optical Character Recognition Software?

In order to get the highest possible accuracy with your OCR Application, the recognition process needs to have a clean image to examine.  The most important are auto-orientation, deskew and despeckle.  The Auto-orientation process examines tha page, and makes sure it is oriented correclty for the whole recognition process.  Deskew examines the page for any skewing, whcih may occur during the scan process, and "rights" the page to make sure the text is inline throughout the page.  Despeckle takes away any speckles on the page that can be falsely identified as font characters, but also can be attributed to any misreads of characters.

Older documents may require other functions, such as font improvement and deshading to insure the highest possible accuracy in the overall OCR process.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Capture

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Capture

So what is document capture software and what does it have to do with OCR applications.  So, I think first, we need to differentiate between scanning software and capture software.  Here is a good blog post that goes over the differences, with regards to SharePoint Scanning.  Scanning Software just gives you the ability to convert paper to a digital form, and then OCR.  Capture Software takes this a step further, and is really a catalyst for some enhanced processing with your recognition engine.  Typical capture software will allow you to perform zone OCR, scan multiple documents in a single stack through separation, perform OCR based separation or even analyze the OCR text for expressions and then automatically extract the data.  Document Capture software provides enhanced data extraction, as an example, as do other vendors like Kofax, AnyDoc, Captiva, etc.

So, I guess the whole point here is that OCR software in most cases just provides a basic framework for the conversion process.  you really need a capture application to harness the true power of any OCR or recognition engine.

How do I pick the right OCR Software?

In the space of OCR Software, or Optical Character Recognition, it can be confusing to say the least on which option you should pick.  It really comes down to the use case, or how you will utilize the software.  Below are some great question to ask your self:

What do I need to convert with my OCR Software? 
This question is very important, and it really comes down to what you are looking to output with your software.  Do you want a word file that you can edit, or are you just looking to create a searchable PDF?  Many engines are tuned for accuracy, and will give you the best formatted output, others are built for speed.  Omni-page is an excellent engine for creating nicely formatted output, but can be rather slow due to its focus on acuracy.  A production engine, like PSI:Capture, which offers multiple OCR choices, can give you great flebility, no matter your ouput choice.

Are they pre-existing images, or ones that I will scan?  PDFs or TIFFs?
It is really important when you are choosing Optical Character Recognition Software, to make sure that you have all the functionality you require, whether you are scanning, or just processing non-searchable PDFs from a directory.  Most of the OCR Software will let you choose the file that you perform recognition on, and others will let you scan in paper for conversion.  If you are utilizing MFPs or Scanning copiers, and want to perform OCR on the scanned documents, you may want to choose a product that performs auto-import, or one that is focused on MFP Scanning.  Also, you want flexibility in the types of file you can process, and want to be able to OCR any image type:  PDF, TIFF, JPG, GIF, BMP, etc.
How fast can I do conversions?
So, some engines are built for OCR Accuracy, others built for speed in the OCR process. Most of the desktop engines, like eCopy Desktop, provide a good mix of both.  Other engines, like Glyphreader or Docustar, provide the ability to choose whether you want speed or accuracy in your OCR results.  It is always good to choose a document capture option that allows you multiple OCR engine options to perform diffferent recognition tasks.

How ddo I get the best accuracy in the OCR ouput?
All of the OCR Software mentioned within this post reuires a high quality image for the best recognition accuracy.  With that said, a high quality scanning software with image processing options will lead to the best OCR accuracy when converting from image to text.  So what does image processing have to do with OCR Software?  The cleaner the image, the better the accuracy, and if you can deskew, despeckle, deshade and sharpen text, you will get better OCR results.

What is Zone OCR?

What is Zone OCR?

Zone OCR Software provides the ability to focus in on just a single, or multiple, sections (zones) of a scanned document or image.  Converting specific zones to text is an important optical character recognition feature set, and one that can be applied in just about any business type.  Its main use is to harvest values from images, and utilize them as index values, to provide search capability later.  Not all zone OCR engines are equal, and you typically need a very accurate engine to produce the required results. Some accurate engines include Glyphreader, Recostar, Docustar and many others.

It is often imperative to "clean up" the zone prior to attempting the conversion to text.  Clean up can include line removal, despeckle, deskew, etc., which are found  in almost any product that provides OCR and Image Processing features.

Open Source OCR Software

Open Source OCR Software

The open source  movement has created some great OCR Software / Optical Character Recognition Software.  Below are links and info:

OCRopus OCR Software
This is a project sponsored by Google, and is a state of the art OCR application.  It is focused on high volume OCR needs, and includes a conversion engine, layout analysis, modeling and multi-lingual capabilities.

OCRopus OCR Software Download

GOCR OCR Application
Developed under the GNU Public License, is can be used with various front ends to convert immages to text, and is open to different image formats.

GOCR OCR Application Download

Tesseract OCR Engine
Engine developed by HP in the late 80s when OCR Software was in its infancy.  Google uses the engine in its OCRopus.  Document Capture companies like PSIGEN have made the Tesseract Engine an option for afvanced capture.

Tesseract OCR Engine Download

OCR Software

OCR Software

This is a new blog dedicated to OCR Software, OCR Technologies and Optical Character Recognition Software review.  It covers topics like SharePoint OCR.