OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is a special technology used in the electronic translation of images and scanned data into text.  It is needed to convert non-typical documents which have been scanned or created to look like an image.

For example, scanned PDFs are different from regular PDFs because then text within them can’t be copied between documents, and the text itself can be of a different format and look depending on the image and scanner quality. As you know, no two scanned documents are the same. Some characters are more visible than others, depending on how you put the paper into the scanner, how well you printed the paper before scanning it, and many other things.

While the human eye can easily see what is written on the scanned or image document, the computer algorithm only sees an image. That is why, in such cases, special computer technology is needed to “read” those characters and recognize distinguish between images, letter and symbols in order to “translate” the image. That special computer technology is called OCR and it is branch of Artificial intelligence.

Special mathematical and programming methods are used to create such technology. However, errors can still occur when characters are not easily recognizable. It all depends on the image resolution, how clear the image is, and any other factors that impact the technology’s ability to read the characters.
Cometdocs prides itself on having one of the most accurate OCR engines on the market – one that can recognize and convert almost any type of data trapped behind an image. This technology is available to our premium users.