Optical Character Recognition - Overview

Wikipedia:
Optical character recognition (OCR) is the mechanical or electronic conversion of images of typed, handwritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used as a form of data entry from printed paper data records, whether passport documents, invoices, bank statements, computerized receipts, business cards, mail, printouts of static-data, or any suitable documentation. It is a common method of digitizing printed texts so that it can be electronically edited, searched, stored more compactly, displayed on-line, and used in machine processes such as machine translation, text-to-speech, key data and text mining. OCR is a field of research in pattern recognition, artificial intelligence and computer vision.

Google:
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) lets you convert images with text into text documents using automated computer algorithms. Images can be processed individually (.jpg, .png, and .gif files) or in multi-page PDF documents (.pdf). These are some of the types of files suitable for OCR:

• Image or PDF files obtained using flatbed scanners
• Photos taken with digital cameras or mobile phones

Abbyy:
Optical Character Recognition, or OCR, is a technology that enables you to convert different types of documents, such as scanned paper documents, PDF files or images captured by a digital camera into editable and searchable data.

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Simple Document Imaging & Workflow Management
Imagine being able to “google” any document in your organization based on a keyword or number reference. With OCR recognition software, you are able to search for your scanned documents by any name or number reference.

3 Components of a Simple Document Management / Digital Archiving Solution

1. Scanning and Imaging: Documents are scanned into Searchable PDF format (Optical Character Recognition indexes all text, keyword and number references contained in the document).
2. Storage: Very simply and easily route documents into existing folders on a local network or create new folders directly from the scanning device / MFP.
3. Retrieval: Use Index search to locate any of your documents by name, keyword or number reference.

Key Benefits

• Security & Disaster Recovery: Easy backup & storage offsite.
• Productivity Gains: You are no longer manually digging through file cabinets when trying to locate a document.
• Accessibility: Documents can be viewed by many people within your office or from remote off-site locations.
• Organization: Documents don’t become lost since there is no need to re-file.
• Space Efficiency: Save office and cabinet space in your office / workplace.
• Cost Savings: Employee and company resources are free from the manual handling, filing and re-filing of paper documents.
• Environmental Sustainability: Documents are printed and copied at less of a frequency due to access by staff across the network.

Source : 4 Office Automation