How to turn scans and photos into editable text (OCR)
Last updated: by Zendocs Support Team
A scanned PDF looks like a document, but to a computer it is just pictures of pages: you cannot search it, copy from it, or convert it properly. Optical character recognition (OCR) fixes that by reading the text out of the image.
Getting better results
OCR accuracy depends heavily on input quality. Scan or photograph pages straight-on and flat, in even lighting. A higher-resolution scan beats a blurry photo every time. After recognition, skim names, numbers, and unusual terms. They are the most common misreads on any OCR system.
Scan to Text
For scanned PDF documents, open Scan to Text.
- Open the tool that matches your file type.
- Upload the scan or photo (up to 100 MB).
- Download or copy the recognized text.
Image to Text
For photos and image files (a receipt snapshot, a whiteboard, a printed page), open Image to Text.
What to do with the recognized text
Once you have recognized text, you can:
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