As the world continues to go more digital, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is playing a major role in making this transition. Using computer algorithms, OCR can convert scanned images of printed text or even handwritten notes into a machine-readable format. By converting files into a digital format, users can edit, search, and store files with greater ease. A device equipped with OCR can scan mountains of paper documents and turn them into files that are searchable and editable. This gets rid of the need for manual data entry, which is a huge time saver. There are multiple applications of this software that can save any office time and money. Here are a few of the biggest benefits of using OCR.
- Improved efficiency – Being able to search through digital files will instantly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of employees. When content is converted into searchable electronic text, there’s no longer a need to spend time manually looking through documents and files for information. OCR lets users do searches by keywords or phrases, saving enormous amounts of precious time.
- Editable text – The typical scanned document is just an image capture of an original document, but OCR lets users easily edit or manually correct the text. Instead of making an entirely new document when changes are needed, you can simply edit the document you already have.
- Greater accessibility – Once the physical documents and files are converted to digital files, they can be accessed online and conveniently shared electronically between employees and departments.
- Reduced space – Scanning documents and storing them digitally uses much less storage space than storing hard copies in filing cabinets.