Optical Character Recognition: You Don't Need to Type Your Document

This process is also known as jpg to word conversion. Basically its a way of copying texts from picture or scanned document.

You can scan a document (previously typed document by you or someone that need to be typed) without having to type them again simply by understanding what and how OCR works.

Optical Character Recognition:
 

usually abbreviated to OCR, is the mechanical or electronic conversion of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used as a form of data entry from some sort of original paper data source, whether documents, sales receipts, mail, or any number of printed records.

There are numbers of software that my help you do just that, below are some of them (Freeware). The first two are from Microsoft Office Package (in order to use them you have to install Microsoft Office Suite to your computer) while the last one was developed by HP Lab (you can download from the provided link and start using, its free).

Microsoft OneNote 2007

 
For the occasional basic OCR stuff, MS OneNote’s optical character recognition feature is a time-saver. You will just scan the document, right-click on it and "copy text from picture". 

How it works:

--> Drag a scan or a saved picture into OneNote. You can also use OneNote to clip part of the screen or an image into OneNote.

-->  Right click on the inserted picture and select Copy Text from Picture. The copied optically recognized text goes into the clipboard and you can now paste it into any program like Word or Notepad.

Microsoft Office Document Imaging Tool:

using the document imaging tool is a bit limiting because it accepts only TIFF (or MDI) formats. But that’s not too much of a bother as any graphic application can be used to convert an image to TIFF. In the screenshot below, I have used MS Paint to convert a JPEG to a TIFF.

-->  Open the file in Microsoft Office Document Imaging – File ““ Open.

-->  Click the little eye icon – Recognize Text Using OCR.

-->  Click on MS Word Icon ““ Send Text to Word.

--> A MS Word File opens with the editable converted text.

-->  Alternatively, you can also use MS Paint to select a specific area and copy it to the clipboard. Open MS Office Document Imaging, Select Page, Paste Page to copy the selection for OCR.

FreeOCR (v.2.03)

This requires Microsoft Net 2.0 framework. The Windows XP/Vista compatible 4.38MB software can also be downloaded from this alternate site.
Free OCR tools come with their own limitations. And scanning a page has to do a lot with resolutions, contrasts and clarity of fonts. From an average user’s standpoint, 100% OCR accuracy remains a pipedream.

  

-->  It supports most image files and multi-page TIFF files.

-->  It can handle PDF formats and is also compatible with TWAIN devices like scanners.

--> FreeOCR also has the familiar double window interface with easy to understand settings.

-->  Before starting the one click conversion process, you can adjust the image contrast for better readability. 

You can use of any of the above method of OCR in doing your stuff, its all up to you to make your choice as they are all good and equal to the task.

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