Here are the 23+ best free OCR software for windows and mac. With OCR, electronic equipment identifies shapes by detecting dark and light patterns on printed characters and then translates those into computer text via character recognition.

A text-based image is recognized and converted into an editable document by detecting the text. OCR serves two purposes: storing paper documents and reusing them.

Ocr Software Mac free download - 4Media iPod to Mac Transfer, Mac DVDRipper Pro, MacX YouTube Downloader, and many more programs. 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 from your scanned OCR documents.

At the same time, OCR can search for documents in order to streamline workflows and make them easier to handle, so most companies will use OCR software.

What is the best OCR software to use? We will introduce you to 23+ free OCR programs that will help you handle your files more efficiently.

23+ Best Free OCR Software for Windows & Mac

1. Symphony

Using Symphony, scanned files can be searched using the OCR technology in the back end. You can submit PDFs, TIFF files (Tagged Image File Format), e-faxes, emails, and other document types to this service.

Features:

• Symphony OCR helps you to detect text from PDF files containing scanned images.
• You can copy and paste data from the documents.
• It allows you to search text in the document.
• This tool can be integrated with SharePoint, ShareFile, etc.

2. FineScanner

In addition to scanning documents, FineScanner can also digitize books and convert them into a searchable format. Following the scan, you will be able to edit the output file.

Features:

• It can read your mobile screen, including icons, links, buttons, etc.
• FineScanner allows virtual assistant commands to get PDF, scan documents, open books.
• Output can be shared with other people.
• You can use it on an iPad or iPhone.

3. Text Fairy

Text Fairy is an Android app for OCR. It can view the text from photos or images taken by the camera. It can recognize print in more than 50 different languages.

Features:

• It can extract text from scanned images.
• This app automatically modifies the image accurately for a better result.
• You can edit the resulted file.
• It can convert images into PDF files.
• Text Fairy does not show any advertisement while using it.

4. Softworks OCR

With Softworks, you can extract information from images using OCR software. As a result, it helps you minimize manual entry while providing an automated solution for your business.

Features:

• It assists you to improve the quality of scanned documents.
• Softworks OCR accepts numerous input sources.
• It uses a system vision algorithm to analyze the processed page.
• This tool can detect existing layers of text within an image or document.

5. Soda PDF

Soda PDF turns paper documents and images into editable PDF files. Multiple documents can be recognized simultaneously.

Features:

• Soda PDF supports you to change font type, style, and size.
• It stores files on the server for 24 hours.
• You can use this app online and offline.
• PDF files having images can be easily converted into plain text.
• It encrypts the URL between the server and the browser.

6. Chronoscan

Chronoscan is an application for document processing and data extraction. Flexibility and user-friendliness are its hallmarks. Using this tool, you can scan documents in less time.

Features:

• It allows you to scan a large volume of documents.
• You can easily filter out text from PDF files.
• Chronoscan allows you to upload documents to the cloud.
• You can export all the documents to ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software.
• It assists you to reduce data entry work.
• This software helps you to quickly organize your documents.

7. Readiris

A simple software package called Readiris converts text from paper or image documents automatically. This feature makes editing files easier rather than retyping them.

Features:

• It supports numerous output formats.
• Readiris can listen to your books in a format specified by you.
• Compatible with Windows and Mac operating systems.
• Chronos can assist you to edit the embedded text in an image.
• You can export documents to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.

8. Amazon Textract

Amazon Texttract is a tool for extracting text from scanned documents. Automation of document workflow, fast processing of many documents is possible with it. Adobe universal patcher 2015.

Features include:

• It recognizes content written in form or table.
• This tool uses API to get data from documents.
• It automatically extracts data from forms.
• Textract can read virtually any document.
• Automatically identifies key information.
• You can adjust document quality in percentage.
• It is integrated with Amazon’s Augmented AI service for document processing.

9. Evernote Scannable

Evernote Scannable is a mobile app that lets you transcribe paper into digital files. A file can be shared with other people using this application.

Features:

• You can scan slips, business cards, contracts, etc.
• It automatically rotates, crops, and adjusts images.
• Evernote allows you to export documents as JPG and PDF files.
• You can easily extract contact details from business cards.
• This app can be utilized on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
• Preview images before approving them.
• It allows you to send the converted file via email or text message.

10. Infrrd

Infrrd is a solution for OCR. You can convert documents into easily readable files with this program. Contracts, financial documents, and medical documents can be filtered using the app.

Features:

• Infrrd app can see titles and text quickly.
• It allows you to filter text from Infrrd using machine learning.
• You can integrate with your current CRM (Customer Relationship Management).
• This tool utilizes AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology to extract data from the invoice.
• You can classify documents according to category.
• It gives an OCR solution for all document formats.

11. Text Scanner [OCR]

Text Scanner [OCR] is an Android application that scans text. Text can be converted from images using this program. Automatically recognize characters from a photo with this tool.

Features:

• It supports 50+ languages.
• You can scan the handwritten paper and change it into a digital format.
• Text Scanner [OCR] helps you to share a file with others via email.
• You can keep the file to Google Drive.
• It supports communication software like Google Hangouts and Google+ social media websites.

12. Scanbot SDK

The Scanbot SDK allows you to scan and create documents right from your phone. With this SDK (System Development Kit), Android and iOS projects can be easily integrated.

Features:

• It automatically recognizes text from scanned images.
• You can extract text from documents and convert it into searchable and editable files.
• This app supports all major operating systems.
• You can use it offline.
• Scanbot SDK can understand Latin, Arabic, Asian, etc. characters.
• You can scan PDF documents having a multi-page.

13. OCR Text Scanner

Text can be recognized in scanned documents using OCR Text Scanner. This app makes handwritten and typed documents editable by turning them into an editable format.

Features:

• It can recognize text in more than 30 languages.
• You can copy text from the clipboard.
• OCR Text Scanner encourages you to share a document via email.
• It automatically identifies text written in the scanned document.
• This tool helps you to save a quotation written in a magazine or book.
• You can utilize the OCR Text Scanner online and offline.
• OCR Text Scanner supports you to send the extracted file to other people via email.
• It can identify typed text format.

14. Google Cloud

Text can be detected in images using the Google Cloud Vision API. You can convert PDF files, PNG files, JPEG files, etc. to machine-readable text using this tool.

Features:

• You can use this application on a computer, an Android phone, an iPhone, an iPad, and more.
• It can detect handwriting in images.
• This tool can extricate and save text from uploaded images.
• It triggers the cloud function in order to save text to online storage.
• Google Cloud automatically image files located in the cloud.

15. OneNote

OneNote is an optical character recognition product that allows you to copy text from a printout or picture. The software allows you to make changes to the file.

Features:

• You can turn data written in the image into text with just one click.
• It allows you to extract text from printouts.
• OneNote supports you to extract text from a business card.
• You can paste copied text utilizing the keyword shortcut.

16. OnlineOCR

OnlineOCR recognizes characters and text in PDF documents and images. Over 15 images can be converted to editable text formats per hour using the software.

Features:

• It holds more than 46 languages, including English, Chinese, French, etc.
• OnlineOCR can control BMP (Bit Map), PNG (Portable Network Graphics), zip files, etc.
• You can change text into Word, Excel, RTF, and plain text format.
• This service enables you to integrate converted files into your website.

17. Adobe Acrobat

With Adobe Acrobat, you can convert scanned PDF files and images into searchable and editable documents. The fonts look similar to printouts.

Features:

• You can instantly edit any printed document.
• It enables you to simply cut and paste the text into other applications.
• Acrobat allows you to export the file to Microsoft Office.
• You can convert scanned documents to PDF files and move the data from one location to different.
• This tool assists you to keep the look and feel of documents like the original one.

18. OmniPage Ultimate

A digital document can be easily edited and searched with OmniPage Ultimate. Almost any file format can be scanned with minimal effort.

Features:

• Provide ready-to-use document formats.
• You can combine this application with mobile and printers.
• It carries a wide range of applications, including Microsoft Office, HTML, and more.
• You can open this app from the network.
• This app can recognize in more than 120 languages.

19. ABBYY Cloud Reader

The ABBYY Cloud Reader recognizes handwritten and printed pages. The program can recognize over 200 languages. You can use this tool to create searchable Word, Excel, PDF, etc. files from PDF/image files.

Features:

• It supports Mobile devices and desktop PC.
• This tool can recognize receipts and business cards.
• ABBYY Cloud Reader gives REST (Representational State Transfer).
• It converts recognized data into XML (Extensible Markup Language).
• This tool gives a library for Java, .NET, iOS, and Python.

20. Cisdem pdf converter

With Cisdem, you can easily convert PDF files. Text, images, tables, and other elements can also be retained along with their original formatting using the tool. It is capable of converting PDFs to MS Office, Apple iWork, and images.

Features:

• It assists you to scan PDF into searchable documents.
• You can transform multiple PDFs into various document formats.
• Generate PDF from Word, PowerPoint, HTML, EPUB, etc.
• Supported platform: iOS.

21. Nanonets

A web service called NanoNets allows you to digitize documents and PDFs using OCR. It can be used to convert over a hundred scanned documents into formats such as XML, PDF, and others.

Features:

• You can define a category of text for accurate detection.
• It allows you to upload up to 50 images of each text category.
• NanoNets automatically type out characters from carried images.
• You can get your converted files within a few hours.
• It can change the human-readable text into structured data using OCR.
• This app allows you to extract information from images.

22. LightPDF

It enables you to edit scanned PDF files online by converting them to editable text formats. Adding files is as easy as clicking a button.

Features:

• It allows you to select more than one language for recognizing text.
• This tool encrypts your personal information.
• You can turn images and PDF into PPT, TXT, RTF, etc. formats.
• LightPDF provides support on the phone.
• You can scan files having more than 30 MB in size.

23. Ocr.space

A service called OCR.space is used to convert text-containing images into editable formats. Furthermore, you can get PDF text through this site.

Features:

• It provides you to choose a specific language for your document.
• This service can also change a screenshot of text documents.
• You can use Ocr.space without any registration.
• Ocr.space enables you to see an editable file into a multi-column text format.
• It does not store your private data on the server.

24. Easy Screen OCR

You can convert images into editable text files with Easy Screen OCR. A screenshot can be converted into text using this software.

Features:

• It helps with a drag and drop facility to upload files.
• Easy Screen OCR removes uploaded files within 30 minutes.
• You can select text from images without registration.
• This service uses Google’s learning service to keep your cloud data safe.
• You can add up to five pictures for the conversion.
• It can recognize 100+ languages.
• Easy Screen OCR allows you to set a shortcut for easy access.

We are in the times when paperless office penetrating through our work, we use digitized files on a regular basis. However, there are great chances we need to further edit these non-editable or non-searchable files for different intentions. And OCR is applied to make these scanned files to be editable. For a Mac user, using the best OCR software for mac is often considered as the easiest way to do the OCR job.

Users’ Pick---The Most Affordable & Accurate OCR Software for Mac

You may have noticed that almost all OCR software comes with a relatively high price tag. Yes, OCR is never easy and cheap. But there is one just combines all the things you need, affordability, OCR accuracy and simplicity---Cisdem PDF Converter OCR.

Highlight of Cisdem PDF Converter OCR

• High OCR Accuracy: precisely recognize texts and keep original formatting;
• OCR files in 200+ language;
• Advanced OCR Settings: export specific parts of the file as Text, Image or Table;
• Do OCR on Protected PDFs: auto remove the owner-password protection and perform OCR;
• Batch and Fast OCR;
• Extended features: convert native PDFs, create PDFs from other documents, etc.;
• Low Price--- $59.99/lifetime license and 7/24 technical support;

Easy Step to Use the Best OCR Software for Mac

Step 1Download and install the free trial of Cisdem PDF Converter on Mac.

Drag and drop scaned or image documents into Converter interface.

Step 2Turn OCR button ON.

Choose page range, file language and output format.

(Optional) Use Advanced OCR

If you are not satisfied with current OCR result or you want high-quality OCR, you can click the settings icon to bring up the Advanced OCR interface. You will find all the contents are auto marked as texts, images or tables in different colors. For example, if you want to export a specific area as text, click on “Mark Texts” in the OCR applied zone, then drag a mark box to include the contents you want to mark as texts.

Full List of Top 12 OCR Software for Mac 2021

Do you have any clues about how to pick top OCR software for mac?

The OCR accuracy! And this is just what those free Mac OCR tools cannot guarantee for users. OCR accuracy refers to how much can the OCR software recognize from the files and how much can it maintain in term of formatting, layout, etc. The more it is capable of making the OCR output look the same as the original file, the higher accuracy it can bring, and the better it is.

And basing on this, we finally collect the following list of 12 best OCR software for mac in the year of 2020-2021, with high OCR accuracy.

• No.1 Adobe Acrobat DC

Not surprised that Adobe ranks as No.1, right? We all know the power of Adobe products, a great PDF tool to edit, create, and make interactive PDFs. You can even fill forms, sign, comment, and share, virtually everything you want to do on a PDF with Adobe Acrobat DC.

There is an automatic OCR engine in Adobe Acrobat DC, Acrobat automatically applies optical character recognition (OCR) to your document and converts it to a fully editable copy of your PDF. It also helps to turn scanned documents into searchable PDFs, export PDFs to Office and image formats.

Input format: PDF, Scans

Output format: PDF, Docx, XLSX, PPTX, HTML, Image(JPEG, TIFF, PNG), RTF, Postscript, Text, XML 1.0

Batch OCR: No

OCR Accuracy: High

Price: $14.99/month

YouTube Video Tutorial

• No.2 ABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac

ABBYY FineReader Pro is the OCR software combines exceptional OCR and document conversion quality with an intuitive interface. It can precisely recognize text and retain layout with a support of more than 180 languages. You can easily convert PDF to Word on mac, also output the files into various formats like TXT, XSLX, EPBU, HTML, PDF, etc. It also supports batch processing and Text-to-Speech, quite time saving and convenient for every user.

When processing images, the image editor will enable you to improving the quality by correcting brightness and contrast, straightening curved text lines, correcting trapezium distortions, reducing ISO noise and removing motion blur, spliting dual pages, cropping images, and so on.

Input format: PDF, Image(TIFF, JPEG, JPEG 2000, JBIG, JBIG2, GIF, PNG, BMP)

Output format: PDF, PDF/A, DOCX, RTF, XLSX, PPTX, ODT, HTML,TXT,CSV,EPUB,FBS

Batch OCR: No

OCR Accuracy: High

Price:$119.99

YouTube Video Tutorial

• No.3 Cisdem PDF Converter OCR

PDF Converter OCR is an enhanced PDF OCR software designed to convert any PDF and images into searchable and editable files. It supports 16 output formats and 200+ languages. The batch conversion feature will save users a lot of time and efforts to deal with multiple scanned documents. With its easy-to-use interface and high quality OCR recognition, no more documents retyping and reformatting will be required.

What's more, this PDF OCR converter enables users to create PDF from many other documents, also protect/unprotect PDFs. Even, you can customize the PDF size and quality within this program.

Input formats: PDF, Image

Output formats: PDF, RTFD, DOCX, DOC, XLSX, PPTX, HTML, TEXT, EPUB, PAGES ,KEYNOTE,JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, and TIFF

Batch OCR: Yes

OCR Accuracy: High

Price:$59.99

YouTube Video Tutorial

• No.4 Able2Extract Professional 16

Able2Extract Professional 16 is as powerful as Adobe Acrobat, building in all necessary features you will need to handle your PDF files: convert, create, edit, OCR, batch process, fill forms, compare, view, annotate, protect, sign, etc. It outperforms other OCR software in accuracy, even poor quality scanned files can be recognized accurately, because it offers a set of tools to correct skewed content, iron out grainy, turn broken text into smooth fonts…

Also, it does a great job on PDF to Excel conversion, by not only keeping original layout and style, but also customizing the column and row structure of the Excel output. The most impressive is, Able2Extract Pro is well trained to present the tables within a smart template, which makes your Excel output looks the same professional as the original.

While it is pitiful that Able2Extract understands 4 languages only: English, Spanish, French and German. For sure, most of us just need an English OCR, but if you need OCR files in minority languages, Able2Extract seems to be feature limited.

Input format: PDF and Scans

Output format: Docx, XLSX, PPTX, ePub, HTML, AutoCAD, Text, Searchable PDF, Image;

Batch OCR: Yes

OCR Accuracy: High

Price: $149.95

• No.5 Readiris Pro 17 Mac

Readiris Pro 17 Mac is an OCR software for Mac OS built to convert photos and scanned Images into editable formats including:DOCX/RTF/TXT/HTML/IMAGE. It will preserve the original formatting and easily back up your files in Drive/Box/iCloud/Evernote, etc. Particularly for PDF files, Readiris Pro 17 Mac allows users to create, add, merge, delete, edit, sign, and compress pages.

Input formats: JPG, GIF, PSD, PNG, TIFF, BMP, PDF, Scanned images (Image Capture) (TWAIN)

Output formats: PDF, DOCX, XLSX, ODT, ePub, RTF, HTML, TXT, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, MP3, WAV, etc

Batch OCR: No

OCR Accuracy: High

Price:$99

YouTube Video Tutorial

• No.6 Foxit PhantomPDF

Foxit PhantomPDF is a PDF tool with vast editing functionalities, you can edit texts and images in your PDF, also add, delete, extract, rotate PDF pages easily. Of course you can manage the PDFs by freely splitting or merging, create PDF, fill out PDF form, sign, protect and annotate PDFs . Foxit PhantomPDF for Mac also comes with a fast OCR technology to convert scanned PDF image, even scans to multiple formats like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, HTML and TXT.

Input format: PDF, Image, Scans

Output format: PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, HTML and TXT

Batch OCR: No

OCR Accuracy: Good

Price:$139

YouTube Video Tutorial

Affordable & Accurate Mac OCR

• OCR scanned & protected PDFs, images
• Output support: Searchable PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Keynote, Pages, ePub, etc.
• Batch, fast and accurate OCR
• Affordable Price $59.99/Lifetime
• OCR files in 200+ languages
• Extended features: convert and create PDFs

• No.7 Prizmo 4

Prizmo 4 is a scanning application with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) in 23 languages. Prizmo can be used by everyone, thanks to its support of VoiceOver. Prizmo includes a specific processing depending on the type of document (text, business card, image) you want to process, you are also allowed to manually update or edit recognized information if you want to make some corrections. Even you can share files after OCR processing via iCloud, Evernote, Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, WebDAV.

Input format: JPEG, RAW, TIFF,PDF

Outformat: Prizmo Documents (.pzdoc), JPEG, TIFF, PNG, vCards, PDF, RTF, TXT

Batch OCR: Yes

OCR Accuracy: Good

Price:$74.99

YouTube Video Tutorial

• No.8 PDFPen

PDFPen is a versatile PDF tool to add signatures, text, and images, to make changes and correct typos, to fill out forms, also to perform OCR mac. As you can see, OCR is just one impressive feature among its versatilities. It can perform OCR on scanned documents, users are allowed to adjust resolution, color depth and contrast, skew and size of an image or scanned document, and also you can have quick edits with the context-sensitive popup-menus.

Input format: PDF and Image

Output format: Word, PDF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF

Batch OCR: No

OCR Accuracy: Good

Price:$74.95

YouTube Video Tutorial

• No.9 PDF Element

PDFelement allows you to easily create, edit, annotate or convert your PDF files to other popular formats. PDFelement can detect whether a PDF file is scanned or just native, then make corresponding suggestions to initiate OCR. After OCR, it will open the new created PDF file in PDFelement automatically, then users can click 'EDIT' >'Edit Text' button to modify the text of the PDF file.

Input format:PDF

Output format: PDF, Excel, Docx, Powerpoint, Pages, Epub, RTF, TXT, HTML, Image

Batch OCR: No

OCR Accuracy: Good

Price:$99

YouTube Video Tutorial

• No.10 OCR KIT Pro

OCR KIT Pro utilizes OCR technology to recognize the text in the graphic, it can convert any PDF or graphic file into searchable PDF,RTF,HTML and TXT by simple drag&drop the file into its interface. It supports 25 languages and automatic rotation of the file. Also, it builds in a setting interface to adjust the preferences for better OCR.

Input Format:PDF, TIFF, JPEG, JPEG2000, PNG, PNM, BMP, PCX, GIF as well as OpenEXR.

Output Format: PDF, HTML, RTFand TXT.

Batch OCR: No

OCR Accuracy: Medium

Price:€69.99

YouTube Video Tutorial

• No.11 PDF OCR X

PDF OCR X is a simple drag-and-drop utility that convert scanned PDF to text or searchable PDF files. This is particularly useful for dealing with PDFs that were created via a Scan-to-PDF function in a scanner or photo copier. It also supports 60 languages and batch conversion.

Mac Ocr Software Reviews

Input format: GIF, JPG, PNG, BMP, and PICT,PDF Oahu lap steel serial numbers.

Output format: Text and Searchable PDF.

Batch OCR: Yes

Pdf Ocr Software Mac

OCR Accuracy: Medium

Price:$29.99

YouTube Video Tutorial

• No.12 Lighten PDF Converter OCR

Lighten PDF Converter OCR is a compact PDF tool to export PDF as Microsoft Office, iWork, images and more. Before conversion, it allows enabling OCR on scanned PDF files and supports batch OCR. Comparing with other OCR software, though it hasn’t been updated for some time, it has an excellent support on output format, not so many Mac OCR apps help directly convert PDF to Apple OS document formats: Keynote, Pages and Numbers, it does.

However, it can only recognize 10 languages: English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.

Input format:PDF

Free Ocr Reader For Mac

Output format:Docx, Doc, XLSX, PPTX, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, ePub, RTF, CSV, Text, Image;

Batch OCR:Yes

OCR Accuracy:Good

Price:$34.99

Conclusion

In fact, OCR software with elegant performance on the market is still small in quantity. Among these 12 OCR software, I highly recommend Cisdem PDF Converter OCR or ABBYY FineReader Pro, both are exclusively designed to process OCR on mac, and they do bring highly accurate OCR results.