Are you looking for another way to keep and handle your printed items? Maybe it’s time to try OCR technology.
OCR is an abbreviation for “optical character recognition.” Basically, OCR is a technique that detects text within a scanned document and encodes it into a machine-readable format to generate a digital file. This technology recognises characters such as letters, numbers, and symbols. It is capable of digitising typed, printed, or handwritten characters. After OCR has processed a document, word processors may modify the text.
Originally developed to digitise historical newspapers, OCR technology has found different uses, especially in business. With it, you don’t have to waste time retyping information from papers or handwritten notes, there is less clutter taking up space, documents are a lot easier to search, and they always have a backup.
Because of its utility, it is a good idea to share OCR softwares. And they include text to speech widgets in case you want to listen to your files.
1. Woord
Woord is a full-packed tool that offers most of its features for free. Intrisinctly a text to speech interface, it implements OCR to read texts from images and scanned PDFs. The software supports over 20 different languages. So it can understand your papers no matter where you are from.
If you decide to hear your images aloud, Woord has an SSML editor. This feature will allow you to customise the audio by selecting speed, phonemes, device profile, and more. Set up an account to get two audios and 20,000 characters for free each month.
2. Speechify
Speechify is an intelligent reader that can scan physical papers. The idea of the platform is to become your personal reading assistant by turning your text-based materials into audio and reading their content in a high-quality voice. Feel free to import your photos and other documents.
Speechify counts with more than 50 languages. Plus, you can adjust the reading speed till you find the right one for you. The screen will highlight each word as it reads to help you improve your comprehension. This software is perfect for people with reading disabilities.
3. Speech Central
Import texts from a camera or scanned PDF using OCR with Speech Central. This leading text-to-speech brand enfolds state of the art features for voice readers. You can listen to your documents and customise over 40 settings regarding the audio for productivity and accessibility.
Moreover, Speech Central has built-in text annotation tools. Hence, you can export content with your annotation to .docx format. It may only work with English texts. Nevertheless, it is still a highly recommended app.
Do you find this softwares useful for your daily lives? Leave your experiences in the comments!