When converting scanned invoices, reports or images into editable formats, OCR is required. If you are looking for the best free OCR solutions for mac like many others, we collect a list for you: a list of 12 powerful mac free ocr software or online, free OCR services to perform satisfactory OCR on digitized files for 2021.
Best way to convert your MAC to PDF file in seconds. 100% free, secure and easy to use! Convertio — advanced online tool that solving any problems with any files. Quickly convert PDF files into editable Word documents on your Macbook for free, online or offline. No registration is required for the conversion. PDF is the undisputed king of electronic files; millions of these files are converted and modified on our site every month. Convert Scanned PDF to Word on Mac. Step 1 Download and Install Cisdem PDF Converter OCR on mac. Step 2 Upload PDF for Conversion. Drag and drop the PDF file to 'Converter' or click the '+' icon at the bottom of the program. Step 3 Prepare for OCR scanned PDF to Word on mac.
Full List of Mac Free OCR
Open a Word File. Open the Word file on your Mac using the appropriate Microsoft Office program. Click the 'File' button on the top menu, and select the 'Save As' button. Save Word as PDF. In the pop-up window, select 'PDF' as the format to save to. And that is how you convert a Word document to PDF on Mac with Office. The Easiest and Professional Way to Convert PDF to Word on Mac. PDFelement Pro - The Best Way.
Platform | Input | Output | |
---|---|---|---|
1. PDF OCR X Community | Offline | PDF and Image | PDF, Text |
Offline | PDF and Image | Text, Image | |
3. OneNote OCR | Offline | PDF and Image | Text |
4. OCR App by LEAD Tools | Offline | PDF and Image | Text |
5. Easy Screen OCR for Mac | Offline | Screenshot | Text |
6. DigitEyeOCR | Offline | BMP and GIF | Text |
7. Google Docs | Online | PDF and Image | PDF, Word, ODT, RTF, Text, HTML, ePub |
Online | PDF and Image | Word, Excel, Text | |
Online | PDF and Image | Word, Excel, PPT, Text, ePub, HTML, etc. | |
Online | PDF and Image | Word, Excel, Text, ePub, PPT, DjVu, etc. | |
Online | PDF, Image and DjVu | PDF, Word, Text | |
Online | PDF and Image | PDF, Word, Text, RTF |
Free Try on The Best Mac OCR Program
- Perform OCR on scanned documents and images
- OCR files and export as 10 editable formats
- Advanced OCR settings to improve OCR accuracy
- Batch OCR
- Recognize 27~200 languages
- High quality OCR results
6 Best Free OCR Software for Mac in 2021
There are 2 types of free OCR solutions for Mac users, either online or offline. In this part, we list 6 top free OCR software for MacOS basing on text recognition accuracy and overall features.
1. PDF OCR X Community
PDF OCR X Community is a simple drag-and-drop utility that converts single-page PDFs and images into text documents or searchable PDF files, it supports for more than 60 languages. For multi-page PDFs and batch conversion features, you need to pay its enterprise version.
Download Address: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pdf-ocr-x-community-edition/id571442933?mt=12
Advantages:
- Extremely easy to use;
- Support both PDF and image;
- Recognize 60 languages;
Disadvantages:
- Free edition only OCR single-page PDF;
- Formatting is messed up when working on complicate files;
- Relatively slow OCR process;
2. Evernote
Evernote is a popular note-syncing service, enables users to collect, nuture and share ideas across desktop and mobile platforms. One of its easily overlooked features is automatic OCR service. Users will be allowed to add images into Evernote server for automatic OCR, you may have to wait, but 10 minutes will be quite enough to finish the OCR.
Download Address: https://evernote.com/download
Advantages:
- Available for all platforms (MacOS, Windows, iOS, Android);
- Support both PDF and image;
- Recognize 28 languages;
Disadvantages:
- Limited OCR feature when dealing with PDF (file size, pages, resolution, etc.);
- Relatively slow OCR processing;
Evernote OCR review, how-to guide and troubleshooting
Evernote is one of the best and most popular cross-platform note-taking apps. In this article, you will find how to use Evernote OCR and what to do if Evernote OCR is not working.
READ MORE >3. OneNote OCR
Microsoft OneNote is a program to take and manage notes anytime and anywhere. It greatly facilitates the collaborations between team members. Not only limited to manually input texts to create notes, Microsoft OneNote also embeds the OCR feature, OneNote OCR allowing users to recognize texts from images, so the image texts can be copied and paste as editable or searchable note.
Download Address: https://www.onenote.com/download
Advantages:
- Available for all platforms;
- Support both PDF and image;
Disadvantages:
- Can only copy text from PDF or image, no formatting is retained;
- OCR fails or crashes sometimes;
How to Do OneNote OCR on Image or PDF(Mac, Windows, iPad)
An impressive feature of OneNote is its built-in capability to do OneNote OCR. Here we are going to introduce OneNote OCR, demonstrate how to OCR image or PDF with OneNote.
READ MORE >4. OCR App by LEADTOOLS
OCR App by LEADTOOLS is a MacOS application designed to recognize and extract texts from images. Also it offers a set of tools to improve the OCR accuracy, such as tweak OCR Engine Settings, flip, reverse, adjust binarization or brightness of the image. It can also perform OCR on scanned PDFs, but only export files as text. If you want o convert uploaded files to other format with LEADTOOLS, you will need to copy and paste to the text processor accordingly.
Download Address: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/leadtools-ocr/id604393629?mt=12
Advantages:
- Easy to use;
- Advanced settings to improve OCR accuracy;
- Support both image and PDF;
- Fast OCR;
Disadvantages:
- Recognize only 5 languages;
- No formatting is retained, only text;
5. Easy Screen OCR for Mac
It is a light and simple Mac free OCR software to recognize texts from images. All you need to do is, capturing the screenshots of your file first, then performing OCR on the file to make the image text copyable. Also, it allows users to save the screenshot as PNG or PDF format. However, this free OCR software for mac only allows users to OCR 20 images for free.
Download Address: https://easyscreenocr.com/
Advantages:
- Easy to use;
- Small in size;
- Support to take screenshots from any files;
Disadvantages:
- Only 20 images can be processed with OCR;
- No formatting is retained;
- Unstable OCR accuracy;
6. DigitEyeOCR
Though DigitEyeOCR has discontinued to update for many years, for users who are using MacOS 10.10 and earlier, it is still worth a try. It is a free OCR software for mac to recognize texts from BMP and GIF images. If you want to do OCR on other image formats, you will need to convert the file to DigitEye OCR supported formats.
Download Address: https://digiteyeocr.en.softonic.com/mac
Disadvantages:
- Only support BMP and GIF;
- Unstable OCR accuracy;
- Relatively slow OCR process;
- No update for years;
6 Best online, free Services for Mac
Also, there are quite a lot of online, free OCR services for mac users, but not all of them can actually perform OCR or bring satisfactory OCR results. And here we pick 6 best free OCR tools online according to our OCR testing.
7. Google Docs
Google Docs is a service offered by Google to manage web-based documents, like creating, editing Word, Spreadsheets, presentations, even store them online for easy access on different devices. Users can perform Google OCR on images, scanned PDFs, it is fast with basically satisfactory results.
Advantages:
- Support images and PDF;
- Excellent support on output format (searchable PDF, Word, ODT, RTF, TXT, HTML, ePub);
- Edit files after OCR processing within Google Docs;
Disadvantages:
- Require several steps to finish the OCR;
- Unstable OCR accuracy;
- Take time to process OCR;
8. Online OCR
Online OCR is an online OCR service that can recognize the texts and characters from scanned files and images. It requires no software installation, what you need to do is upload the file (not exceeding size of 5MB) as guided, choose the language and output format(Word, Excel or Text), then 'Convert' to start the OCR process. Once finish, a download link will be offered to download the converted file.
Advantages:
- Support both image and PDF;
- Easy to use;
- Export files as Word, Excel and Text;
- Recognize 46 languages;
Disadvantages:
- Unstable OCR accuracy;
- Need to manually adjust formatting in the output file;
- Max file size limit 15 MB;
9. Online2PDF
Online2PDF is another online platform to manage PDF files, such as editing, compressing ,unlocking ,converting, merging, protecting and so on. Comparing with other online, free OCR tools, Online2pdf offers extended features to customize the output and support more output formats.
Advantages:
- Batch OCR;
- Support both image and PDF;
- Excellent support for output format;
- Allow customizing output files;
Disadvantages:
- File quantity and size limit;
- Recognize only 6 languages;
- Unstable OCR accuracy;
10. ConvertioOCR
Convertio is an online, free tool to OCR image and scanned documents, then save them as various editable formats. You can upload files from local or via url, even icloud storage accounts. It allows users to perform OCR on a multiple-language file.
Advantages:
- Upload files from local, URl or icloud storage services;
- Recognize multiple-language file;
- Excellent support for output formats (11 formats);
- Convert all or specific pages;
- Save converted files to Dropbox or Google Drive;
Disadvantages:
- Unstable OCR accuracy;
- Relatively slow OCR processs;
- Need to manually adjust the formatting;
- Only 10 pages can be done with OCR for free;
11. New OCR
New OCR can convert JPG, PNG, GIF, MBP, TIFF, PDF and DJVU files into Doc, TXT or PDF format. To improve the OCR accuracy, New OCR allows users to rotate images and analyze page layout before the OCR processing. If you want to export the files as other formats, you need to click the “Download” button at the bottom of its page to export.
Advantages:
- Support image, PDF and DjVu files;
- Export files as Word, Text and searchable PDF format;
- Allow to rotate or analyze page layout for more accurate OCR results;
Disadvantages:
- Unstable OCR accuracy;
- Fail to do OCR sometimes;
12. Free Online OCR
Free Online OCR is a free service enabling users to convert images, scanned PDFs into editable and searchable text, such as DOC, RTF,TXT or PDF. It will rotate the pages automatically for accurate OCR, you can get editable files with nice formatting.
Advantages:
- Support both image and PDF;
- Export files as Word, PDF, Text and RTF;
Disadvantages:
- Unstable OCR accuracy;
- Need to manually adjust formatting in the output file;
What if Mac Free OCR Tools Fall Short?
However, these online/free mac OCR tools are not suitable for all mac users, you may feel not satisfied in one way or another:
- There is a size limit of the files;
- It doesn’t support various input or output format;
- Risk of privacy leakages;
- The tool doesn’t support your expected language;
- The OCR result is not satisfied;
- It is feature limited;
......
As we all know, “free” means you cannot get everything you desire from the service, if you require higher than those free services can offer, you will need to pay. This is also true to OCR services.
Best Solution If Mac Free OCR Software/Service Not Working
Choices on paid professional OCR software for Mac users are large in quantity. But if you are looking for the one combining simplicity, versatility and affordability, Cisdem PDF Converter OCR is absolutely the best choice.
Cisdem PDF Converter OCR is a dedicated Mac OCR software to convert and create PDF, also perform OCR on scanned documents or images to make them editable & searchable. One thing makes Cisdem outperform its competitors is its high quality OCR performance:accurate OCR results and maintained original formatting.
Use Cisdem to OCR All Files Now
- Convert PDF to 16 formats;
- OCR scanned documents and images into Word, Excel, PPT, Keynote, Pages, etc;
- Convert images;
- Create PDF from virtually all documents;
- Batch conversion;
- High quality OCR and conversion results;
Steps to Perform OCR on Files with Cisdem
- Add scanned PDF or image to Converter interface.
Drag and drop, or click '+' to add files. - Turn the OCR button ON, choose page range, file language and output format.
- Optional. Tweak the advanced OCR settings for more accurate results.
Click the 'Settings' icon, a new interface will appear. You will find all the contents are marked as Texts, Images or Tables in different colorful boxes. If you want to output a part as table, remove the current mark box, click on 'Mark Tables' in the OCR applied zone, then drag a mark box to select the part you want to mark as Tables. - Click “Convert” to start OCR.
So, did you think this list is helpful? Help us spread the word.
Quick and easy guide to convert PDF to Word on Mac.
In the computer stream, there are many file formats and one such is the Portable Document Format (PDF) that can run on any Operating System. You can view the PDF file easily, but when the editing part comes, you may wonder how to convert PDF to Word on MAC, like editing in PDF is not simple and if it MAC OS, then the process will be a bit complicated.
So, to overcome this situation, you have 5 ways to convert PDF files to Word. These methods will enable you to convert the scanned PDF files to .doc, .docx or TXT format.
Recommended: Best PDF Editor Software For Windows 10
How to convert PDF to Word on MAC?
Contents
- 1 How to convert PDF to Word on MAC?
#1. How to Export PDF to Word on Mac Using Google Docs
You might have accessed Google Docs several times, but overlooked its great feature and one such is to convert PDF to word doc. Google Docs is a powerful tool that can be used in the documentation part as it is embedded with Optical Character Recognition that can convert the scanned PDF or image files to word file. Now, go through the steps listed below to convert pdf into words.
Step #1: First and foremost, open Google Drive on your Mac and then Sign in with the username and password.
Step #2: Now, click on the Gear shaped icon which is located at the top of the page and then select ‘Settings’ from the drop-down menu.
Step #3: Click on the ‘General’ tab that is located at the left panel and move to the ‘Convert upload’ section.
Step #4: After completing the above step, click on the checkbox ‘Convert uploaded files to Google Docs editor format’ and then click on the ‘Done button.
However, there is another way to convert pdf to word document Mac and the same is provided below for your convenience.
Step #1: Open Google Drive on your Mac and then sign in with your credentials.
Pdf To Word Converter Free Mac
Step #2: Now, click on the ‘New’ tab and then select ‘File Uploads’ from the drop-down menu. Thereafter, you will need to select the pdf file that you want to convert into a word file.
Step #3: After uploading the file, click on the ‘File’ tab and move to the ‘Download as’ section and then select Microsoft Word (DOCX).
Step #4: Now, save the file and it will be in the word file that will enable you to edit the contents effectively.
#2. How to Convert PDF to Word on Mac with Automator
Automator is an inbuilt app of Mac that enables the users to access the workflow efficiently. Most of the users are not aware that this app can convert PDF to Word Mac.
However, it won’t give the perfect look after converting the file to Word and you will have to give the final touch, but this application will extract the PDF file and fetches it into plain text or Rich text.
Using this Automator, you will not have to wonder for a question ‘how to save PDF as Word’ as you will get an option to do this task. Now, follow the steps listed below for PDF to Word conversion.
Step #1: Open the Automator tool on your Mac.
Step #2: Now, create a new workflow and then move to the ‘Search for’ section.
Step #3: Thereafter, select ‘Get selected finder items’ to select the PDF file.
Step #4: Now, move to ‘Extract PDF Text’ and then select the ‘Output filename’, i.e. rich or plain text.
Step #5: After completing the above task, click on the ‘Run’ button and allow the Automator to perform the task.
Step #6: Once the process is completed, open the word file that has been converted in PDF format.
#3. Try third party applications
PDF to Word converter for Mac freeware will help you to achieve the task effectively. There are many such applications available in the market that can reduce your effort. The applications are paid versions, but some of them are free and using the same will help you to convert PDF to Word files more precisely.
However, there is one serious drawback of such applications as the PDF file runs on Optical Character Recognition technology, so they can give you the perfect output. But, some applications embedded with OCR are also available that will cost you, but you can try the demo version free of cost.
Step #1: Search for the third-party tool which is embedded with OCR technology such as CISDEM, Online OCR, and many more.
Step #2: After selecting the one at per your convenience, download and launch the application.
Step #3: Now, drag and drop the file in the application and then adjust the PDF file as per your desire.
Step #4: After giving the final touch to the PDF file, move to the ‘Output format’ section and then select the desired format from the list.
Step #5: You will see the ‘Convert’ button, click on it to start the PDF to Word conversion process.
Step #6: After the completion of the process, open the Word file that has been converted from PDF and perform the task that you want to do.
#4. How to Convert a PDF to Word File using Adobe Acrobat
Adobe is the creator of the PDF, so definitely it provides the tool to convert PDF to Word and one such is Export PDF to Word, but this is a bit expensive. The web app application runs smoothly on any OS and performs the conversion task smoothly. If you have lots of PDF files and need to convert them into DOC format, then this is an ideal tool.
However, if you just need the conversion of 2-.3 files, then better think again to access this tool as it will cost you more and in this case, you can try the above methods for the conversion process. The prime demerit of this tool is that it does not provide a free trial, so you will get to know about this tool only after purchasing the subscription plan that costs US $23.88/yr.
For more details, you can visit the official website of Adobe by clicking on the link
#5. Convert PDF to Word in mac without any Tool
If you are connected with the internet but don’t want to download and install any dedicated software to convert pdf to word doc, then you can simply search for “pdf to word converter for mac” online, you will get a list of sites like SimplyPDF.com which are offering such services without any cost. You need to go through those sites and upload your PDF file there and then follow the on-screen process to download the doc file. If you require to convert pdf into word on a regular basis, then you can bookmark those sites which are convenient to convert PDF files into Doc form.
Pdf To Word Converter For Mac
Final Thoughts
Converting PDF to Word on Mac is not a tough job, but you should know the proper way where you can perform the task. Here, the listed methods are simple and easy to use and all the methods are free of cost, so you need not worry about the cost except Adobe.
Google Docs is an ideal platform that will help you to convert PDF to Word Mac free online. Apart from Google Docs, you can also access the Automator tool that is inbuilt on Mac and it will also do the task more efficiently. Now, you have lots of choices and you can choose the one as per your solace.
Related Post:
Free Pdf To Word Doc Converter Mac
- How to Protect your Mac from Viruses?