Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Which OCR engine is Free-OCR.com using?
Tesseract
Is there an API or Webservice available?
Not at the moment, but if there is enough interest we will implement an API. Access to this API would not be free. We would charge about 0.005$ per page. If you are interested in receiving a notice if an API is available send an email to .
I have a big number of files to process!
For this case we suggest you use an OCR application. With an installed application you have more options for automation. We suggest Abby Fine Reader
Do I have to optimize my images before I upload them?
We do automatic image preprocessing optimizaton before the image is fed to the OCR engine. We reduce background noise and adjust the resolution. The only thing left is to deskew the image if skew is more than 10°.
Your service does not support my language. Do you plan to add more language support to the OCR?
Does it preserve formatting and layout of documents?
No. The result is always plain text.
Can I OCR screen shots?
Our OCR engine requires images at a resolution of 150 dpi or greater and as such it is not optimal suited for reading PC screen shots which are only 72dpi. An Additional problem is that the fonts used for web design are usually sans serif fonts, which are more difficult to recognize than serif fonts.
But as we process your uploaded image for better accuracy it might be possible to OCR even screen shots. just give it a try. In the most cases the result is faster than typing all by hand.
My images contains text, but the result is only rub...!
If the text font is too small or the background noise is too high (for example a background image) then our OCR process will fail like every other OCR tool.
However, if you think your image is good enough to get usable results you can help us to improve this service and send your images to us (see contact). We are always looking for real world examples to improve this service.
Only the first page of my PDF file is processed!
At the moment you have to live with this constraint. In the near future it will process the first 10 pages of a PDF file.