Free OCR

If you are technical, there are always virtual machines. I like installing software into those, using it, then rolling back the virtual machine to a known good snapshot. I've had too many times where additional packages came as "freebies" even though there was no dialog to not install them, so if a package demands crapware come along with it, fine. It just gets sent to the bitbucket when I'm done with it.

Thanks much for the info. Bob

kirbybear wrote:
1492 Thanks for the links. I had found the FreeOCR which did not get a very favorable feedback on Cnet. Most complaints was that the download was loaded with malware and the program itself was not that good. Bob

FreeOCR is just a front end for the open source Google hosted OCR engine Tesseract. I seriously doubt you will find a much more accurate OCR program for Free? It doesn't contain malware, nor apparently does the FreeOCR installer which I uploaded and was scanned by 48 separate AV software engines using VirusTotal.

Unfortunately, most freeware is not really free. And developers nowadays typically try to get you to add third party plugins which pay them a fee for each install. Those complaints on CNET of adaware or malware "allowed" these third party plugins to be installed, and are likely venting their frustrations. Though you can decline all third party additions and just install FreeOCR.

For example, during the install, just click the DECLINE button for each plugin:

Once you have declined all third party installs, you will be able to install FreeOCR by itself:

I'd also consider installing the free Comodo Program Manager(CPM) which actively monitors file and registry changes made during installs. If you accidentally install a program in the future with third party adaware, or even malware, CPM can uninstall all with one click. It's one of the few free uninstallers that monitors the installation process itself. Most popular free uninstallers do not. For Windows, except doesn't support WIN 8.

1492 Thanks for the links. I had found the FreeOCR which did not get a very favorable feedback on Cnet. Most complaints was that the download was loaded with malware and the program itself was not that good. Bob

FreeOCR is a freeware OCR. Google Docs also offers OCR for uploaded files. And the free PDF reader PDF-XChange Viewer has OCR function built-in for PDF image documents to make them editable and searchable.

OCR = Optic Character Recognition

A program that can look at a document and turn it into a "word processed" document. It usually allows you to make typing changes or additions to the document.

LeRoy

What is OCR?