How To Extract Text From Picture?

As an internet user we always keep looking for good content for our various purposes such as projects, reports, for our blogs etc. Since i am a blogger i also keep looking for good content that i can use for my blog. Sometimes in quest of searching we get good content directly from a website and we simply copy it and use it wherever we want. But sometimes we get the required content but that is written on an image so it can't be copied directly. Generally this not a big issue as it looks like. Today we have various different methods to extract the written information from an image and one of which that is very common nowadays is using an OCR(Optical Character Recognition).

Basically OCR is a technology that we can use to extract the information from an image, PDF files etc. So extracting the text from an image is not a big deal, you can do it easily both online and offline. Since there are many website present online that are providing Free online OCR service so that you can easily extract the text from your selected images or pictures. Also in addition to this if you want to extract the information from an image without using an online OCR then you can download a software for your own, as there are many software distributing websites available online that are providing the free OCR software that you can use offline to serve your purpose. I think i have given you the hint of what i am going to do in my next steps.

Ways to extract the text from pictures:

Basically there many ways to do this but in this tutorial i am going to show you the two methods to extract the text from an image, these are:

• By using free online OCR service.
• By using an OCR software offline.

By Using Free Online OCR service:

As i have already discussed that there are many websites available online that are providing the free online OCR service that you can use to extract the text from picture. I have found two best free online OCR service sites for you, these are:

• www.onlineocr.net
• www.free-ocr.com

How to use these websites to extract the text from your selected image ?

Using these websites is very easy as their user interface is quiet simple and effective. Also these sites don't take much time in extracting the text from picture. So first we start with Onlineocr.net:

How to use Onlineocr.net ?

• Open your web browser and enter www.onlineocr.net in the address bar and press enter.
• Then the site will open up and it will show you that extraction of text from an image is a three step process.

• First of which is "Upload file".
• Simply click on Select file tab and select the image file (from which you want to extract the text) from your PC.
• Then second step is "Select Language and Output Format".
• So simply select any of the language as per your requirement. Basically select that language in which the content is written on the image. Then select the output format, it offers three different formats that is docx, xlsx and txt. So select the output format as per your requirements.
• Then enter the captcha and click on Convert tab which is the third step.
• Now in few seconds it will extract the text from picture and give it to you in your required format.

How to use free-ocr.com ?

The process is very similar to onlineocr.net, it is also a three step process:

• Enter www.free-ocr.com in the address bar and press enter.
• Upload image file using Browse tab.

• Then select the preferred language.
• Then enter captcha code.
• Now click on send file tab and it will extract the text from image.
• Simply copy the text and use it wherever you want.

By Using An OCR Software Offline:

This is our second way of extracting the text. If you have a large number of image files from which you have to extract the information then download a Free OCR software for yourself because it will save your time of again again visiting a website for just extracting text. So i have found one of the best OCR software that can serve the purpose without taking your much time and effort. The software i am giving is very small in size and very fast in extracting text from image so i think downloading and using it will nor bother you much. Here i am giving you the two download links from which you can download the Free OCR software.

Link 1: Download Free OCR software from cnet.
or
Link 2: Download Free OCR software from softpedia.

Now i think you have downloaded the Free OCR software, so lets start the tutorial.

How to use FreeOCR software ?

• After downloading and installing the software simply open it.

• Then you will see two windows in the software, one for image and other for text.
• From right side window remove all the text using Backspace tab.
• Then click on Open tab and select the image file from which you want to extract the text.
• Then select the area in the image from which you want to extract the text.
• Now click on OCR and it will ask you "OCR current page" or "OCR all pages".
• You can select any of the option as per your requirement. Since here i am using a single image so i am selecting "OCR current page".
• After few seconds you can see the extracted text in right side window of the software.