Free OCR Software Tools - Convert Images into Text

When we scans a paper page into a computer, it produces just an image file, a photo of the page and the computer cannot understand the letters on the page. And we also can not search for words or edit it, have the words re-wrap as we type, or change the font as in a word processor.

Now, we can use OCR software to convert it into a text or word processor file to edit or type the document. OCR is a system of converting scanned printed or handwritten image files into its machine readable text format. It works by analyzing a document and comparing it with fonts stored in its database or by noting features typical to characters. It can extracts all the information from the image into easily editable text format.

Ok, Let us see some free OCR software programs, Microsoft Office Document Imaging and Microsoft Office OneNote.

Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MODI) can read and write a small variety of Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) files. It has two components, a scanning component and an imaging component which listed separately in the Windows Start menu as Microsoft Office Document Scanning and Microsoft Office Document Imaging.

After installing Microsoft Office Document Imaging, you can find it under Menu - Microsoft Office - Microsoft Office Tools - Microsoft Office Document Imaging.

Here, we used MS Paint to convert a JPEG to a TIFF.

• Click the file in Microsoft Office Document Imaging then open it.
• Click the little eye icon - Recognize Text Using OCR.
• Click on MS Word Icon - Send Text to Word.
• The MS Word File opens with the editable converted text.

Microsoft Office OneNote is a software package for free-form information gathering and multi-user collaboration. It is most commonly used on laptops or desktop PCs, the digital notebook provides one place to gather and manage notes and information.

It Offers powerful search capabilities to find what you're looking for quickly, and simply shared notebooks to help manage information overload and work with others more effectively. It also helps to consolidate various types of information, such as freeform notes, images, documents, files from other Microsoft Office system programs and rich media, it can organize it in the way that works best for you.

• Just drag a scaned or a saved image into OneNote or use OneNote to clip part of the screen or an image into OneNote.
• Click on the inserted image and select Copy Text from Picture.
• The copied optically recognized text goes into the clipboard and paste it into any program like Word or Notepad.

Now, through above free OCR software programs, we can successfully convert images into text for us to edit or type. OCR software can also convert paper and PDF document to editable text, try them now!