Dealing with data has always been a hectic task. You have to worry about manual data entry, data processing, and many other challenges that may pop up. With optical character recognition (OCR), entering and tracking data becomes much easier, improving the accuracy of data processing and analytics.
According to Straits Research, the global optical character recognition market size was valued at $10.45 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach $43.69 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 17.23% from 2024 to 2032.
OCRs help reduce manual labor and lead to a massive increase in efficiency across various industries. This article will discuss everything you need to know about OCR technology and mention the best OCR APIs for your business.
What is Optical Character Recognition (OCR)?
Optical Character Recognition, or OCR for short, is a technology that recognizes text within an image or video and translates the characters into machine-readable text for data processing or plain text for data entry.
This benefits a lot of businesses across different industries, as the automatic data extraction from documents and images speeds up digitalization of data, saving time and resources.
OCR has been adapted across many industries, including :
- Healthcare
- Automotive industry
- Financial services and invoice processing
- Human resource management
- Supply chain management
- Forms and surveys data extraction
- E-commerce and online retail
- Loan applications, insurance, and more.
- Research and academic use, and more
But how do these industries use OCR APIs to help their day-to-day processes? Here are a few examples:
1. Adobe Acrobat Pro
The Adobe Acrobat Pro’s OCR feature allows users to convert scanned documents into editable and searchable PDF documents, making it an ideal choice if your business centers on document management.
It also has many more features that make it stand out for businesses, enhancing collaboration and efficiency.
2. Vehicle Databases OCR API
Vehicle Databases provide solutions for businesses in the automotive industry, including a robust OCR API. This OCR API scans and reads license plates and vehicle identification numbers (VINs), providing extracted text to be further processed into useful information like the vehicle’s year, make, model, engine type, transmission type, accident records, and more.
This OCR API offers 99.99% accuracy in text detection within a second. Plus, it is also capable to read handwriting and plethora of different fonts.
Most of Vehicle Databases services are for industries involved in vehicle sales, rentals, insurance, vehicle history reports, fleet management, etc. If you need an OCR API designed for automotive industry needs, you can check out our OCR API Services.
READ ALSO: Automatic License Plate Recognition Using VIN OCR API
3. Amazon Textract
Amazon Textract is a cloud-based OCR service that automates text and data extraction from scanned documents and PDF files.
It is particularly beneficial for industries like finance and healthcare, where large volumes of paperwork need to be processed quickly and accurately. Their machine learning tool can analyze forms and tables, making it a versatile tool with several applications in different industries.
4. Google Cloud Vision API
Cloud Vision API interprets and analyzes visual data with its accurate solution for extracting data from images, documents, and videos. With this OCR tool, handwritten text from images, printed text, objects, and even faces can be identified to extract the right information.
It also integrates seamlessly with Google Cloud services and other third-party solutions.
5. Klippa OCR
Klippa OCR specializes in automating document processing for various industries, including finance and logistics. Its API allows businesses to integrate OCR capabilities seamlessly into their existing systems, enhancing workflow efficiency.
It can capture, recognize, and convert unstructured data. With the online OCR solution, characters can be easily extracted from receipts, invoices, documents, resumes, and more, regardless of fonts and layouts.
6. Tesseract OCR
Tesseract is an open-source OCR engine that is particularly popular among developers who want to integrate OCR functionality into their applications while avoiding licensing fees.
It recognizes over 100 languages, can handle Unicode without trouble, and can even be trained to recognize other languages. You can install it as a Python package using PIP and implement it in your app or automation.
READ ALSO: 9 Best Car Value API Providers
7. ABBYY FineReader
ABBYY FineReader stands out for its high accuracy in text recognition and layout preservation. It is an OCR application that allows you to edit PDF files directly, convert image documents into text, and screen captures into editable formats.
It is widely used in industries that require high accuracy, such as legal and financial services.
8. Microsoft Azure Computer Vision
Next on our list of best API OCRs is Microsoft Azure Computer Vision. This OCR software is among the top ten for a good reason. It can extract text from images and PDFs with superior performance and high accuracy.
Azure AI Vision caters to various business needs regarding data security and compliance and offers additional features like image tagging and object detection.
9. OCR.Space
OCR. Space is a free OCR API that offers simple text extraction from images. It supports multiple languages and has a basic RESTful API, which makes it relatively easy to implement in most applications.
Although it lacks some of the features of other paid solutions, it is a great way for small businesses or start-ups to obtain OCR cheaply.
10. ScanThings
ScanThings is an innovative OCR API designed specifically for mobile applications. It allows users to scan documents and extract text directly from their smartphones.
This API is ideal for companies where documentation needs to be processed while workers are on the move, such as field service and salespersons. Its user-friendly interface and quick processing times make it a valuable tool for mobile-centric operations.
Outline Your Use Case and Use OCR APIs Today
If you’ve been looking to improve business efficiency and reduce the need for manual data entry, you should integrate one of the best OCR APIs mentioned above. By automating your data collection process, you save time that could be used for other business operations and even save costs.
Whether in finance, healthcare, logistics, or automotive, OCR APIs can significantly elevate your business. For businesses in the auto industry, you can check our wide range of APIs or let us know your use case via a demo, and we will guide you.
Get started with the top 10 optical character recognition APIs today!
