Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

Optical character recognition, or OCR, converts text visible in images, scans, photographs, and PDFs into machine-readable characters. A modern OCR pipeline may detect text regions, correct perspective, recognize handwriting or printed symbols, and reconstruct reading order and layout. The technology supports document search, invoice processing, accessibility, translation, archiving, and identity workflows. Accuracy depends on image quality, fonts, languages, handwriting, tables, background noise, and document structure. A plausible transcription can still contain consequential mistakes in names, dates, or amounts. High-impact uses therefore combine OCR confidence scores with validation rules, source-image access, and human review rather than treating extracted text as automatically authoritative.