Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is technology that detects text in an image or scanned document and converts it into actual text characters. Without OCR, a scanned page is just a picture of words that software cannot search or select.
Why it matters
OCR makes paper archives searchable, lets you copy text from screenshots and powers features such as number-plate reading, invoice processing and accessibility tools that read images aloud. Accuracy depends heavily on image quality, language, font and layout, so results always need checking for important documents.
Example
You scan a printed contract into a PDF. The file starts as an image only, so searching for "termination" finds nothing. After running OCR, the PDF gains a hidden text layer positioned behind the image, and the search now highlights the word. Open-source engines such as Tesseract do this, and many phone scanners and PDF programs include their own.
Common mistakes
- Trusting the output without proofreading. Characters like
0/Oand1/lare commonly confused. - Scanning at low resolution; around 300 DPI is a commonly recommended minimum for print.
- Expecting reliable results from handwriting, skewed pages or decorative fonts.
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यह पेज सामान्य जानकारी है, जिसे हमारी संपादकीय टीम ने लिखा है और दस्तावेज़ीकरण बदलने पर अपडेट किया जाता है। सर्वर और प्रदाता अलग-अलग होते हैं, इसलिए बदलाव पहले सुरक्षित तरीके से जाँचें। देखें: संपादकीय नीति और अस्वीकरण.