AfterDawn: News

Google Docs now has OCR software

Google has begun offering free OCR software with their Google Docs online productivity suite, giving users a chance to convert PDFs or images into editable text.

Google demoed the image-to-text conversion last year but it appears it is finally ready for prime time.



When uploading files to Google Docs, you will now be given the option to turn PDFs or JPEG image files into an editable text copy, using the Google OCR algorithm.

GoogleSystem says the results are not great yet, but the system will certainly prove to cut down time on making a text copy of a large image or PDF.

Try it out here: Google Docs OCR conversion



Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 22 Jun 2010 13:49

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• 5 comments

• KillerBug

  Seems to work...I'll have to give it a go with some more difficult fonts, but it read 12pt courier taken by a droid camera from a foot away, at an angle. Got everything perfectly...it even preserved spelling, capitalization, and punctuation errors. I wonder if it works with Japanese...
  
  BTW...you don't need to use that link; just go to your google docs folder, select a picture with text in it, and click more actions>convert.

  22.6.2010 23:17 #1

• Sandra999 (unverified)

  Have you tried Free Online OCR? It is pretty quick and very accurate.
  http://free-online-ocr.com

  23.6.2010 06:02 #2

• KillerBug

  No; I already have freeware OCR on my desktop...but it is nice to have OCR as a part of google, as it integrates well with my droid. Now we just need a new gallery app to take advantage of this.

  23.6.2010 06:13 #3

• stanccia (unverified)

  Have you tried free ocr? It's pretty good and accurate.

  22.8.2010 21:29 #4

• ocr software (unverified)

  Hi,
  are you talking about online ocr services? it will be difficult to transfer big files over internet. and where the confidentiality comes in, the best way is to use desktop ocr software like: http://products.softsolutionslimited.com/img2ocr/index.htm

  16.12.2010 03:00 #5