Can paper documents be converted into electronic versions? I believe everyone has encountered this issue at work. If you’re short on time or your typing speed isn’t fast enough, you can take a photo of the paper document and then use Optical Character Recognition technology to easily solve the problem.
01
What is Optical Character Recognition?
OCR (Optical Character Recognition) refers to the process where electronic devices examine printed characters on paper, determining their shapes by detecting dark and light patterns, and then translating those shapes into computer text using character recognition methods. In simple terms, it means recognizing text in images and extracting it to create editable documents.
02
What Are the Commonly Used OCR Tools?
Emergency Use
1. WeChat Mini Program (using the example of [Image to Text])
Steps: Open WeChat — Discover — Mini Programs — Search [Image to Text] — After entering the interface, click [Start Using] — Choose [Take Photo] or select an image from [Phone Album] — On the [Image Crop] page, click [Start Recognition].
The WeChat Mini Program is simple and convenient to use, allowing you to quickly recognize and convert text anytime, anywhere, with a relatively high accuracy rate, making it an excellent choice for emergency use.
2. QQ. You may not even know that QQ has this feature after using it for so long.
Steps:
(1) Open the scan feature in the QQ app, find the [Text Conversion] function, which can directly recognize text in images.
(2) Log in to the QQ desktop client, press the shortcut [Ctrl+ALT+O] to quickly bring up the text recognition feature.
QQ’s text recognition may have some line breaks, but the accuracy is decent and can be used in emergencies.
3. Yiqi Online Character Recognition Website
Steps: First upload the file, then set the conversion parameters, such as setting the conversion result to [Word Document (doc format)], keeping other settings default, and then click [Free Conversion], waiting a few seconds to download the conversion result.
The accuracy of Yiqi’s online recognition is average, but it is convenient for processing long images and is a viable choice for emergency use.
Daily Office Use
1. Tianruo OCR Character Recognition
Download the free [Tianruo OCR Character Recognition] software and install it on your computer to use.
Steps: Press the F4 key to start screenshotting, and once done, the text recognition will be completed immediately. Tianruo OCR can easily extract text with high accuracy, generally requiring no secondary modifications, only adjustments to font, line spacing, and other formats.
2. WPS
Steps: Create a new blank document — Insert image — Right-click and select [Extract Text from Image].
WPS can quickly recognize text with a high accuracy rate, but it requires reformatting. If you regularly use WPS for work, using it for text recognition is undoubtedly the best option.
Friendly reminder: If conditions allow, scanning the paper document into an image first will significantly improve the accuracy of text recognition!
These are several commonly used OCR tools. I believe everyone can easily handle the task of converting paper documents into electronic versions in the future!
