Whenever there is a need for a particular text from a certain image, we normally have to type in the whole text. Not any more, with OCR software, you can easily extract texts from images and scanned pages. OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. These software extracts text from an image and converts it into an editable form. This can be a real time saver when you are scanning a document or converting a book to digital format.
In this post, I have listed three such free online tools that you can use. To compare them better for accuracy, I have used the same screenshot (below) from a webpage in all three.
Free OCR
Free OCR is an easy to use web service using which you can extract text from your image files in few simple steps. Browse and select an image from your computer. Then select the language of the text in image file, enter the CAPTCHA code and finally click on the “Send File” button.
After processing, a text box containing the text extracted from the image will be shown on the next page. Now you can copy and edit this text in the way you want.
Free OCR supports PDF and JPG, GIF, TIFF, BMP and PNG image formats. There is also an option for multi-lingual text support, so you can extract text in different languages such as, Czech, Italian, French, Spanish, German, Indonesian, etc.
Registration is not required but it has few restrictions:
- Uploaded images cannot be larger than 2MB.
- Images cannot be larger than 5000 pixels.
- Only 10 image uploads per hour.
Visit: Free OCR
New OCR
NewOCR can convert text written on images into editable text.
Before uploading you have to select the document language from the supported 29 languages and can also rotate the document.
NewOCR allows unlimited uploads, and supports image files (JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, multipage TIFF) up to 5MB, and multipage PDF documents up to 20 MB.
No registration is required to use it.
Visit: New OCR
Google Docs
Google has added the OCR feature to its Google Docs web application. Using it you will be able to extract text from both images and PDF files.
Simply drag and drop your document into the drop area for uploading. Under the “Select conversion options,” check the “Convert text from PDF or image files to Google Docs documents” checkbox and click on “Start Upload.” Now Google docs will extract the text and save the document into your account.
Along with the converted text, the original images will also be included in the new document.
You can also use this sample form for quick access. It will prompt for “Sign In to Google Docs” account. Grant access and upload your image files. After completing process, the document will open for editing and simultaneously its also saved in your account for later use.
Limitations:
- Maximum file size: 10MB
- Maximum resolution: 25MP
Visit: Google Docs
7 thoughts on “3 Free Online Tools to Extract Text from Images”
Thanks for the listing of free online OCR services. I’ve also found that Ricoh Innovations is offering a free beta version of their software, that is available for online document conversion. Check it out at:
Hi,
FreeOCR uses tesseract OCR engine. tesseract is a decade old ocr engine. Many commercial ocr software like this ocr software are much better than tesseract.
Hi Ankit, thanks for the suggestion.
There are many commercial OCR software available, but here at SumTips we try to provide free solutions as much as possible. 🙂
http://www.MyFreeOCR.com as another great free online ocr software. No registration.
Yah.useful post.Got what I was looking.Now I can use OCR.Thanks a lot mate.
Since I do not like to send information to internet,
I use GT Text https://code.google.com/p/gttext/
Try this android OCR app(offline): CoolNotes with OCR. It is free and not bad, very easy to extract text from image (Camera or Gallery) into a note.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xwinstudio.coolnotes