OCR software enables the digitization of essential data in paper documents and photographs. They can then be electronically changed, shared, and kept. Even better, you can make an editable document from a scanned image.

Then you may use it as a model for other documents in the future.

However, you must be sure that the OCR SDK of the software you use is appropriate for your needs before you begin scanning your data.

This post will provide you with five suggestions for the top OCR APIs available right now in 2022.

1. Why is Filestack OCR considered one of the best OCR APIs?

Initially created as a tool by developers for developers, Filestack OCR has subsequently expanded to offer a wide range of goods.

Users of the Filestack product line can also fully scale their content efforts using a single API, thanks to image intelligence functionality.

With just two lines of code, customers of Filestack can significantly increase the usefulness of any file upload. Irrespective of their sector or use case, users may use the Filestack workflow capabilities to streamline content tasks within an easy-to-use UI.

Filestack follows best-in-class capabilities used by industry leaders to analyze photos quickly and deliver valuable insights.

Besides simple object identification, it has copyright and object detection capabilities and precise content detection.

Filestack comes with a very responsive Content Ingestion Network (CIN) to prepare for continuously shifting network conditions. It also makes uploads almost three times faster and immensely more dependable.

Key Features

• Large feature set
• Accelerated performance
• Secure
• Embedded file viewer
• Finally, support for all accurate data sources

Pros

• Increase data collection efficiency
• Fewer errors
• Effective data transfer
• It supports uploading files via drag and drop
• It also supports real-time photo and video posting using the device’s camera
• Must enable a multi-part uploader, which divides a huge file into smaller pieces for uploads that are more efficiently optimized

Cons

• Provides flexible trial plans, although smaller organizations and individuals may find it slightly more intimidating

2. How good is ABBYY FineReader as an OCR API?

ABBYY FineReader is an OCR program that offers editing capabilities for PDF files. Thanks to AI-based OCR technology, it can recognize text in more than 198 languages.

Therefore, this robust application is ideal for transforming PDFs worldwide.

It makes converting PDFs simply and provides various features that can simplify your life. Some of those features are converting scanned PDFs, PDFs with images, and password-protected PDFs.

ABBYY FineReader offers a 7-day free trial for private users and a 30-day free trial for business users. It works on Windows, Android, iOS, and Mac.

The AI-based OCR and document converting technologies from ABBYY guarantee high standards of accuracy while preserving wireframes for easier editing.

Key Features

• Make, modify, and also arrange PDFs
• Collaboration and PDF approval
• Tools for superior editing and document comparison
• Intelligent and adaptable OCR settings/adjustments

Pros

• OCR editor with keyboard support for manual corrections
• Outstandingly clear interface
• Exports in a variety of formats
• Document comparison feature

Cons

• It does not have full-text indexing for quick searches
• Learning curve necessary
• Costs may be expensive
• Unable to examine the document’s revision history
• Cannot combine many files into one
• The UI might seem too complex at first
• Large files are also processed slowly

3. Is IBM Datacap good as an OCR API?

Datacap also extracts valuable data from corporate papers by automating those documents’ collection, identification, and classification.

Datacap offers a powerful OCR engine, several features, and programmable rules. It is also compatible with fax, multifunction peripherals, mobile devices, scanners, and other channels.

Key Features

• Advanced document capture
• AI-infused intelligent processing
• Export to other targets
• Role-based redaction
• Highly adaptable rules-based capture

Pros

• Configures sophisticated data collection applications
• Mechanism for scanning
• Easy to use

Cons

• Almost no online assistance
• UI may be more user-friendly
• Setting up can be difficult
• Slow
• A customized flow is difficult to create
• Batch commitments require time

4. Adobe Acrobat Pro: An OCR solution?

You can create customizable and searchable text from scanned documents and photos with Adobe Acrobat Pro.

It recognizes text in photos using optical character recognition (OCR), making it simple to modify and conduct targeted searches. Acrobat Pro is another piece of excellent software from Adobe.

It can edit PDFs, recognize text, add comments, convert Microsoft Office documents, digitally sign PDFs, and many others. Additionally, numerous features are already included in Adobe’s PDF file viewer. Moreover, the OCR tool is accessible on all devices.

Key Features

• Strong PDF editing software
• High rate of OCR accuracy
• Support for digital signatures
• Available across major platforms

Pros

• Reliability
• Easy to use
• Cons
• Expensive
• Not a specialized OCR program
• It occupies a large amount of space on the hard drive
• Integration challenges with services like Dropbox and Sharepoint
• It also needs a Creative Cloud license from Adobe

5. Is Google Document AI one of the top 5 OCR APIs?

Google Document AI (DocAI) is a document processing interface that uses machine learning to automatically identify, retrieve, and enrich data and uncover insights from inside documents.

This is one of the services in the Google Cloud AI portfolio. Therefore, users can process many documents with Google Doc AI, including PDFs, payment forms, and invoices.

DocAI employs AI algorithms to increase data accuracy and also decrease the need for manual human checks.

You can save processing costs, guarantee legal compliance, and gather insights from numerous documents to improve customer experiences with only a few clicks.

Additionally, this platform’s computer vision technology allows users to read and scan data from scanned photos and unorganized words. Clients can also apply data validation and add human reviews to enhance the accuracy of data extraction for AI models.

Key Features

• Combines Google Graph with parsed data
• It also supports multiple languages
• Data enrichment of documents by clever analysis
• It converts to PDF and functions with a variety of cloud products
• Document splitting, form parsing, and also text editing
• Lastly, feedback from Human in the Loop (HITL)

Pros

• Simple to set up
• Additionally, it combines seamlessly with other Google services
• Information storage
• Fast

Cons

• Firstly, it’s difficult to customize pre-existing modules and libraries
• Python or other coding languages are also not suitable for this
• Ineffective API documentation
• Expensive
• Not ideal for installations of hybrid clouds
• Also unsuitable for situations requiring bespoke AI algorithms

In Conclusion

OCR APIs can help you analyze, retrieve, and organize data, minimize data extraction mistakes, and improve the effectiveness of data collection.

Photos, invoices, business cards, IDs, and tax documents can all be used with it.

Additionally, you may avoid the burden of manual data processing by character-by-character converting image attributes into customized identification codes utilizing APIs.

Also published here.