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OCR

How to Extract Text From an Image (OCR)

Use optical character recognition to pull text out of scanned documents, screenshots, photos of signs, and handwritten notes.

2026-05-25 - 5 min read

Which images work best for OCR

OCR accuracy is highest when text is printed clearly, horizontally aligned, and well-lit without shadows crossing the letters. Scanned documents and typed text in screenshots convert almost perfectly.

Handwriting, very small fonts, heavy compression artifacts, or text printed on patterned backgrounds all reduce accuracy. Boost contrast and straighten the text if possible before uploading.

Review and edit the output

Even good OCR makes occasional mistakes with similar characters like 0/O, 1/l/I, or punctuation. Always read through the extracted text before using it in a document.

For multi-page scans, convert each page separately and then combine the text. This makes it easier to spot and fix errors page by page.

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