

- #Free ocr software review 2016 pdf#
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Nuance’s Power PDF is such a solution provider. Adobe Acrobat (not Adobe Reader) is one of the most commonly used software that has the ability to OCR PDF files, without creating a new file in the process.
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You may wish to purchase and install OCR software on all the computers in your firm and instruct them to always be sure to OCR every document. The drawback is that this method will only OCR documents that you scan and not scanned documents that you receive from other parties, for example clients, clerks, opposing council, etc. The benefit of this is that the OCR process will happen immediately when a document is scanned without the need for any action by the end-user. Some scanners come with pre-installed OCR software. Accordingly, the question has now shifted from “whether OCR software is needed” to “how accurate is the OCR software I am getting”. When the reading, understanding, an interpretation of words is the bread and butter for a law firm, even a character error can lead to a loss of meaning or misinterpreted context. Some might argue that OCR is no longer a “nice to have” in a law firm. The user will easily be allowed to cut and paste the text that has been converted. It is even possible to insert text from a document directly into a word processing document such as Microsoft Word, thus adding a whole new level of functionality. The end result is that searching for information becomes far easier, faster and more efficient. With a good OCR software, it is possible to identify all the text in the document.

OCR technology will effectively convert an image-based document, such as a scanned PDF, to a text-enabled document. A search will never be able to find this document, nor be edited by any word processing software. As a result, the PDF file cannot be indexed by the computer’s operating system or by any document management system (“DMS”). This means that the PDF file or scanned file is an image of the document. Documents scanned in the office or received from external parties by email are often image-based and not text-based. OCR is the process of converting the imageof a scanned document into actual text that can be selected, copied, pasted and most importantly, indexed and searched.īy default, scanned and faxed documents such as PDF files are not stored as text, but rather stored as images. What is Optical Character Recognition (“OCR”)? This way, you need not be concerned that the intended recipient receives a document with formatting errors due to potential software compatibility issues. Files can embed type fonts so that they are available at any viewing location, and this is useful in situations where you want to preserve the document’s printed appearance. PDF files are more than images of documents. This can usually be done via the standard “Save as PDF” option on your word processing software.
#Free ocr software review 2016 free#
They can also be signed electronically and are easily viewed using free Acrobat Reader DC software or other third party PDF viewers.įor a lawyer, being able to convert files into PDF format is a necessity, especially as it is the only acceptable file format for eLitigation online upload of documents. PDFs can contain links and buttons, form fields, audio, video, and business logic. Invented by Adobe, PDF is now an open standard maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
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Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format used to present and exchange documents reliably, independent of software, hardware, or operating system.

What is Portable Document Format (“PDF”)? Head over here for a list of articles contributed by LawTech.Asia members. It was first published here on 22 February 2018 and has been reproduced here with the kind permission of the author. This article is part of the Legal Technology Manual, an initiative by the Singapore Academy of Law (SAL).
