9 Best OCR Apps in 2022 | Charli AI

Remote working is here to stay and it’s forced businesses to transition to cloud-based, paperless technology to manage productivity, collaboration and data storage.

However, transitioning to paperless isn’t always quick or easy for companies. It means uploading documents into a digital format – a task that might be overwhelming and costly. Plus there’s the added consideration of mobility on smartphones and tablets.

OCR technology is a great solution for businesses transitioning to paperless, and a valuable addition to any document management system.

But the options for OCR technology can be overwhelming, making it hard to find the solution that’s right for your company. In this article, we discuss:

What does OCR mean and what are OCR apps?
Why are OCR apps great for businesses?
What are the best free OCR apps?

OCR: What it means and how it works

OCR stands for “optical character recognition.” Essentially, OCR is a technology that recognizes text within a scanned document and encodes it into a machine-readable format to create a digital file.

OCR picks up on characters like letters, numbers, and symbols. It can be used to digitize types, printed, or handwritten characters. After a document is processed using OCR, the text can then be edited with word processors.

Before OCR software was developed, the only option for turning hard documents into digital files was to retype them. Initially developed to digitize newspapers, OCR technology is now used on a widespread basis by organizations from major banks to search engines to accessible software.

OCR Apps will do work for your business

Is your company working to transition to paperless? Do you work with documents such as PDFs, receipts, invoices, handwritten notes and other printed items? If so, OCR will help your business go paperless and:

Save time
– With OCR, you’ll never again have to waste time retyping information from paper documents or handwritten notes. Instead, simply scan the document and let the technology turn it into an editable document.
Make fewer mistakes
– OCR is not only a time-saver, it’s also a more accurate and reliable solution. OCR significantly reduces the risk of making costly mistakes that can occur if imputed manually.
Save space
– Are you looking to improve business organization? Without hard copy documents, there will be less clutter and physical barriers to take up space, cause stress, and distract your team from what matters most.
Find information faster
– When you digitize documents using OCR, they become much easier to search. No more flipping through binders of information trying to find what you’re looking for.
Make hard copies editable
– Ever wish you could make a quick change to a printed document you have before sharing it with someone else? With OCR, documents can be scanned, edited at will and shared.
Automate data entry
– Say goodbye to manually entering forms or expense receipts. OCR lets you input data by simply scanning it in a fraction of the time.
Be prepared for the unexpected
– Sure, food, fires and theft are rare, but they can wreak havoc on your company if you don’t have a backup plan. Saving copies of important documents using OCR is an important part of a disaster recovery strategy.

9 Best OCR apps to try

It’s clear that OCR technology has many benefits for businesses. If you’re ready to give it a try, here are the best free OCR apps to try for iPhone and Android operating systems.

1. Charli

Charli is an enterprise-focused content services platform that uses state-of-the-art AI to unlock more value from your company’s content. With built-in OCR technology, it can handle PDFs, documents, web links and more.

Charli is great at digitizing content. But it’s capabilities don’t end there. After using OCR to scan in your content, you can then do things like: generate high-quality content summaries, extract highlights, organize and share content, and automate content-driven processes.

Charli can be easily integrated with over 500 applications, including ERP, CRM and cloud-based systems — making it incredibly easy to send your content to Charli from anywhere.

2. Microsoft Lens