Summarize this article with:
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is an AI technology that converts images of typed, handwritten or printed text into machine-encoded text.
- OCR APIs scan images and documents to detect and extract text, recognizing characters across different fonts, sizes, and languages.
- OCR experts at Eden AI tested many APIs.
- Dataleon provides Machine Learning tools for data automation and processing, with ready-to-use OCR APIs for data recognition and extraction.
- Consider your use case, budget, required accuracy, and language support.
What is Optical Character Recognition (OCR)?
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is an AI technology that converts images of typed, handwritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. OCR APIs enable developers to extract text from images, PDFs, and scanned documents automatically.
What does Optical Character Recognition do?
OCR APIs scan images and documents to detect and extract text, recognizing characters across different fonts, sizes, and languages. Advanced OCR systems can also identify document structure, tables, forms, and handwriting.
A brief history of Optical Character Recognition methods
OCR traces its roots to telegraphy in the early 20th century. It evolved from single-font systems in the 1970s to multi-font commercial solutions in the 1990s, cloud-based APIs in the 2000s, and today's deep learning models that achieve near-human accuracy across diverse document types.
Best OCR APIs on the market
OCR experts at Eden AI tested many APIs. Here are some top performers: AWS Textract, Google Cloud Vision, Microsoft Azure Form Recognizer, Base64.ai, Mindee, and others.
1. Amazon Web Services (AWS) - Available on Eden AI
Amazon Textract is a machine learning service that automatically extracts text and data from scanned documents, going beyond simple OCR to identify form fields and table data.
2. Google Cloud Vision - Available on Eden AI
Google Cloud Vision offers powerful OCR capabilities including text detection, document text detection, and support for 50+ languages.
3. Microsoft Azure Form Recognizer - Available on Eden AI
Microsoft Azure Form Recognizer provides OCR with document understanding, extracting structured data from forms, invoices, receipts, and custom documents.
4. Base64.ai - Available on Eden AI
Base64.ai is a cloud-based AI service that accurately extracts text and data from all types of documents, supporting hundreds of document types worldwide.
5. Mindee - Available on Eden AI
Mindee helps software product teams build lightning-fast, accurate document processing automation through developer-centric OCR APIs.
6. Klippa - Available on Eden AI
Klippa offers AI-powered OCR solutions for automating administrative tasks and document workflows, available via API and SDK.
7. Dataleon - Available on Eden AI
Dataleon provides Machine Learning tools for data automation and processing, with ready-to-use OCR APIs for data recognition and extraction.
How Eden AI can help you?
Eden AI is the future of AI usage in companies: our app allows you to call multiple AI APIs.
- Centralized and fully monitored billing on Eden AI for all OCR APIs
- Unified API for all providers: simple and standard to use, quick switch between providers
- Standardized response format: the JSON output format is the same for all suppliers
- The best Artificial Intelligence APIs in the market are available
- Data protection: Eden AI will not store or use any data. Possibility to filter to use only GDPR engines.
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