OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
Optical Character Recognition
Technology that reads text from images and converts it into digital text data.
In Simple Terms
OCR is the technology that reads text from photos and turns it into actual text data. For example, if you hold your smartphone camera over a document, OCR can extract the written content so it can be pasted directly into an email or note. It is also widely used to digitize handwritten notes and paper documents so they become searchable on a computer.
Behind the Name
OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition — the three words that describe exactly what it does. The name captures how the technology works: it uses optical means (light) to analyze the shape of characters and recognize them as data that a computer can process.
Take a Closer Look!
OCR is a technology that locates text within images captured by a camera or scanned from physical documents and converts it into data that software can work with.
Where there was once just an "image," OCR transforms the text within it into editable, copyable text data.
At a basic level, the process starts by identifying shapes within the image that look like characters.
Those extracted shapes are then compared against a library of registered character patterns to determine which character each one represents.
There is also a variant called "AI OCR," which uses machine learning trained on large datasets, making it better at handling irregular handwriting and a wide variety of fonts.
OCR is used in many everyday contexts.
It powers features like scanning a receipt with your smartphone to automatically log expenses, or reading the addresses on postcards at postal facilities.
By converting handwritten or printed information into a digital format, OCR reduces the need for manual data entry and helps streamline administrative work.