4 Best OCR Screenshot to Text Tool: Online and Desktop Tools

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) can digitize data from printed files, screenshots, and other image-based files. This technology works by analyzing the shapes of individual characters and finding their match to known characters and fonts. Then, it uses different algorithms to interpret the data and transform it into editable and searchable formats, like Word, PDF, HTML, TXT, and others. That said, OCR plays an essential role in a variety of reasons. For instance, OCR technology also helps in the field of document management. Many companies use OCR to convert paper-based documents into digital format for easier editing, storing, and retrieving. Another example is if you’ve screenshot important details on your computer and want to convert the image to a Word file, OCR will come in. It would help if you had an OCR tool to OCR screenshot and transform them into Word. Furthermore, if you are new to this information, we created an outline where you can learn how to undergo your screenshots in the OCR feature. Check the next part to learn more about doing an OCR with your screenshots and the OCR tools you can use for the process!

Importance of OCR-ing Screenshots

OCR-ing your saved screenshots may benefit you in different ways that you didn’t imagine. Some benefits include work efficiency, where you can ease your time instead of manually typing the data from the screenshots to your preferred text app. Besides that, using OCR technology for screenshots provides a more accurate data extraction, even if the text has different fonts and languages. Additionally, doing OCR image to text and other editable formats allows you to alter and update them instantly. This is helpful as you cannot directly edit the text within an image, eliminating the need to recreate the screenshot from the start. Moreover, we have provided examples of situations where a screenshot OCR converter can be helpful in understanding its usage better.

• Data Entry. OCR can be operated to extract text from screenshots of necessary forms and documents. This makes data entry into a company’s database or spreadsheet easier and faster.
• Social Media Monitoring. Social media managers and moderators need to track and analyze the status and sentiment of their brand on social media platforms. OCR-ing snapshots of social media content can help extract texts for sentiment analysis, report, and response tracking.
• Technical Support. Technical support agents or teams may need to acquire error messages and other information from screenshots of the system error. Using a screenshot OCR tool, they can quickly come up with a troubleshooting solution.

Top Tools to OCR Screenshot to Text

1. AcePDF

AcePDF is a top-grade software that allows you to view, edit, and convert PDF documents easily. But aside from that, the tool has excellent support with OCR technology that lets you extract text from a screenshot and convert it to editable formats. This feature has been a lifesaver if you wish to turn simple screenshots and image-based files into PDF, Excel, TXT, PPT, and others. Besides, its OCR algorithms can recognize individual characters from the screenshot even if it contains different languages, fonts, sizes, and styles. Then, thanks to its “Enhanced Mode,” you can have a precise result for easy editing. With all these features, AcePDF is one of the best OCR for screenshots in the market.

2. Soda PDF

Another OCR screenshot software that we suggest is Soda PDF. It offers helpful tools to help you deal with different files, including screenshots and PDFs. What is more, its OCR feature lets you customize the recognition quality from minimum, low, medium, high, and maximum. This enables you to have a more accurate output of the file. In addition, you can select from its recognized text output, like text-image, text only, and image-text, to cater to the OCR requirement you need. Also, the tool allows you to rotate the screenshot, create bookmarks, straighten a crooked screenshot, and more. So, this is the right app if you are looking for OCR software with customizable recognition quality.

3. OCR2Edit

If you are looking for a free OCR screenshot tool, OCR2Edit would be a great choice. It is a web-based OCR tool meant to convert screenshots to text, whether a JPG, PNG, TIF, or other image format. Moreover, OCR2Edit lets you get screenshots directly from your computer, URL, or cloud storage, like Dropbox and Google Drive. In addition to that, you can determine all the languages that your screenshots contain. English, Spanish, Italian, Cebuano, French, and more are some of the tool's supported languages. On the other hand, you can put filters on your screenshots before the OCR process to enhance the recognition quality.

4. OCR Home

OCR Home is another screenshot OCR online tool that is available to use. With the help of web browsers like Chrome and Firefox, you can easily OCR your screenshot and convert them to Word, Excel, or plain text. Furthermore, the tool supports popular screenshot formats, like PNG, BMP, and PNG format. Also, the tool guarantees that you can have the output file the same as the layout of the source. In addition, its OCR function can recognize more than 50 languages, including English, Brazilian, Polish, Portuguese, and more. Then even if it works online, rest assured that all the uploaded files will be cleared automatically after the process.

OCR a Screenshot with Professional Tool

Now that you have discovered different OCR software and free OCR screenshot tools, it is time to know how to OCR a screenshot. In this tutorial, we used AcePDF as an example due to its impressive features that are convenient for every type of user. Furthermore, we set an image-only PDF as an example for the process, but you can use any image type of your choice, whether it is a screenshot, scanned files, and others. Also, you can extend your reading here to learn more about how to OCR PDF.

Step 1 Launch the OCR Software

With the help of the “Download” symbols above, install the software on your computer. Make sure to let the installer run appropriately and follow the dialogue box guide to complete the installation process. After that, launch the software and select “Batch Process” on the bottom-left menu. Once done, hit the “OCR” feature from the list of features.

Step 2 Add the Image and Start Converting

Afterward, add the image-based file using the drag-and-drop method. Then, you can tick the "+Add file(s)" icon to import more images for batch conversion. Later, change the process's recognition mode, languages, and output folder. Also, do not forget to pick the required output format for your file. Following that, hit the "Recognize" button to start the OCR process of the file.

Step 3 View the New Editable File

Now that you have finished all the actions above, open the converted file's output folder and locate it. The file name has an "OCR" in it for quick access. Once you find the document, right-click on it and hit the "Open with" option. Then, the list of apps where you can open the document will pop out. For example, you can view the file on Notepad, Word, and other text-processing apps.

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