There are several OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software solutions available to convert scanned images to text, Word, Excel, HTML or searchable PDF. The differences between them can often be obscure, leaving many to wonder why some PDF Conversion cost about $100 while others cost $500 or more.

The main features that differentiate PDF Conversion are:

- Character recognition accuracy
- Page layout reconstruction accuracy
- Support for languages
- User interface design
- Output file formats (Word, Excel, PDF, eBook, etc.)
- OCR speed and support for multi-core CPUs
- Batch processing modes
- Advanced PDF encryption or compression
- Special features for niche projects

Because of the infinite combinations of document types, OCR engines, project requirements and special features, it may be possible that one engine will perform better with your particular documents than another. Use our handy OCR feature comparison chart to determine which OCR program best meets your requirements. ScanStore provides demo downloads for most PDF Conversion with your ScanStore User Account if you prefer to try before you buy.

PDF Conversion Categories
The PDF Conversion guide is divided into the following categories:
Applications | OCR Servers | Mac OCR | PDF Converters | Personal
Hebrew/Arabic/Farsi OCR | Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Thai OCR

Desktop PDF Conversion

ABBYY FineReader 11 Professional

FineReader Professional is a highly accurate and easy to use PDF Conversion that includes host of features including digital camera OCR, intelligent document layouts, image enhancement, barcode recognition, and command line integration.  FineReader is our pick for PDF Conversion because its document layout retention will save you much time in reformatting documents you convert for editing.

ABBYY FineReader 11 Corporate

FineReader Corporate Edition offers unique concurrent licensing that makes it possible for many users who need occasional use of OCR to share a small pool of active licenses.  With accuracy comparable to OmniPage, superior technical support services, and a user interface that many users find preferable, we think FineReader Corporate is the best choice of PDF Conversion for business

IRIS ReadIRIS 14 Pro

Affordable PDF Conversion for business and home users.  ReadIRIS Pro provides a very accurate OCR recognition rate at a low cost, but still has some of the advanced features that higher priced professional PDF Conversion includes.  The main limitation is that the Pro version is limited to documents under 50 pages.

IRIS ReadIRIS 14 Corporate

Adds support for files over 50 pages, business card recognition, as well as automatic processing of hot folders.

Nuance OmniPage Standard 18

OmniPage Standard is a low-cost version of OmniPage designed for personal users. It has the same recognition capabilities as OmniPage Pro, but does not offer advanced features like batch processing and forms recognition. Compare OmniPage Standard to Pro.

Nuance OmniPage Pro 18

OmniPage Pro 18 has several unique features that make it stand out for a variety of applications. Some of these include auto-redaction, SharePoint integration, automatic filing with barcodes, PDF auto-bookmarking, form data collection and MFP support. Most of these new features are not available in the Standard edition. Compare OmniPage Standard to Pro.

CVision PDF Compressor Desktop

PdfCompressor Desktop Edition (OCR) is a more economical version of PdfCompressor Professional (OCR), designed for lower-volume users. This version requires files to be processed individually and files must not exceed 100 pages. An excellent choice for someone who needs the power, but not the volume.

CVision PDF Compressor Professional

PdfCompressor produces the most efficient image documents possible for high volume scanning environments by combining highly accurate OCR, advanced file compression, and batch PDF conversion. PdfCompressor can compress scans by a factor of 10-100, enabling documents to be stored, transmitted, accessed, and hosted more efficiently and less expensively.

Arabic, Farsi & Hebrew PDF Conversion

IRIS ReadIRIS Pro 14

ReadIRIS Pro PDF Conversion now includes Arabic (PC version only), Farsi, and Hebrew character recognition in their base package. No special version or add-on is required.

IRIS ReadIRIS Corporate 14

Adds the ability to recognize files over 50 pages, business cards and monitor a hot folder to automatically process images in the background.

IRISDocument Arabic Language Pack

Enables Arabic and Farsi character recognition in the IRISDocument high-volume server OCR solution.

ABBYY FineReader Pro 11 with Arabic

FineReader Professional 11 supports Hebrew character recognition and now has an optional version with additional Arabic character recognition.

ABBYY FineReader Corporate 11 Arabic

FineReader Corporate also supports Hebrew character recognition and now has an optional version with additional Arabic character recognition.

ABBYY Recognition Server

Hebrew and Arabic languages are available as an add-on to the ABBYY Recognition Server high-volume OCR solution.

NovoDynamics NovoVerus Standard

NovoVerus supports an exceptionally wide range of Roman, Asian, Cyrillic and Middle Eastern languages, including challenging global languages like Arabic, Persian (Farsi, Dari), Pashto, Hebrew, Urdu, Chinese (Simplified & Traditional), Korean, Russian, English and Spanish.

PDF Converters

ABBYY PDF Transformer 3 Pro

ABBYY PDF Transformer 3.0's intuitive, versatile, multilingual tool enables you to easily convert any type of PDF into editable formats with the original layout and formatting retained.

CVision PDF Compressor - Desktop

PdfCompressor Desktop Edition (OCR) is a more economical version of PdfCompressor Professional (OCR), designed for lower-volume users.

CVision PDF Compressor - Pro

Using the latest in image compression technology PdfCompressor makes the most compact, Web-friendly PDF files available.

Nuance PDF Converter Pro 7

Nuance PDF Converter Professional is the complete PDF solution for business users, offering an unmatched combination of creation, editing and conversion features.

Server PDF Conversion

SimpleIndex Batch OCR

SimpleIndex combines ABBYY FineReader OCR technology with powerful pattern matching features to extract useful data from OCR text and use it to file documents automatically. Perfect for small to mid-sized businesses that need to digitize many documents at once. Also supports other labor-saving technologies like barcode recognition, zone OCR and database lookups.

OCR results can be saved to text, MS Word or searchable PDF and PDF/A files. Data can be saved to CSV (Excel), any SQL database, embedded in folders and filenames or used as file SharePoint 2010 metadata.

Affordable desktop and server licensing with no pay-per-click makes SimpleIndex the most cost effective software of its kind!

ABBYY Recognition Server

Innovative server-based PDF Conversion for performing centralized enterprise-wide OCR processing.  Processor license allows anyone on the network to submit files for OCR.  Complex XML job specifications can be submitted to control output.  Support available for Arabic and Asian languages.

IRISDocument Server

IRISDocument Server is a lower cost solution compared to recognition server, but lacks some of the more advanced features and has slightly lower accuracy.

Several versions are available with varying monthly page processing limitations, letting you scale your solution to meet your budget requirements. Asian, Arabic and Hebrew language packs are also available.

CVision Maestro

Innovative server-based PDF Conversion CVISION Maestro Recognition Server has been engineered and designed for industrial strength, corporate volume scanning & OCR needs. Maestro provides a flexible OCR solution delivered from a centralized server which enables organizations to easily integrate into their existing document and imaging workflow, while providing multiple workflow accessibility allowing users to perform many image processing functions beyond OCR.

PaperVision Capture OCR

Designed for service bureaus and large scanning departments, PaperVision Capture OCR by Digitech brings an uprecedented level of efficiency and power to information capture. Work with everything, implement any custom process you want, and track any statistic you need. Provides index value population and document break insertion as an automated process.

Chinese, Japanese, Korean & Thai PDF Conversion

ABBYY FineReader 11 Professional

FineReader Professional 11 includes Chinese, Japanese, and Thai character recognition in their base package. No special version or add-on is required.

ABBYY FineReader 11 Corporate

FineReader Corporate includes Chinese, Japanese, and Thai character recognition in their base package. No special version or add-on is required.

IRIS ReadIRIS Pro 14

ReadIRIS Pro PDF Conversion now includes Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and Korean character recognition in their base package. No special version or add-on is required.

IRIS ReadIRIS Corporate 14

ReadIRIS Corporate version is the same as Pro but with the ability to recognize files over 50 pages, business cards and monitor a hot folder to automatically process images in the background.

IRIS ReadIRIS Pro 14 for Mac

ReadIRIS Pro PDF Conversion for Mac now includes Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and Korean character recognition in their base package. No special version or add-on is required.

IRIS ReadIRIS Corporate 14 for Mac

ReadIRIS Corporate version for Mac is the same as Pro but with the ability to recognize files over 50 pages, business cards and monitor a hot folder to automatically process images in the background.

IRISDocument Server Asian Language

Add-on that enables Chinese, Japanese and Korean character recognition in the IRISDocument server OCR solution.

ABBYY Recognition Server

Add-on license is available for ABBYY Recognition Server to add Chinese, Japanese & Korean (CJK) language support.  Thai character recognition language pack is also available, but is sold separately from CJK.

Apple Mac PDF Conversion

ABBYY FineReader Express for Mac

ABBYY FineReader Express is an easy to use PDF Conversion for creating editable and searchable files from scanned documents, PDFs and digital camera images. The one-click conversion feature instantly turns paper documents into various electronic formats, including RTF Format, Excel, and searchable PDF.

Nuance OmniPage X for Mac

OmniPage PDF Conversion for Macintosh users.  This version does not use the latest OmniPage engine, but provides good accuracy nonetheless.  Once again, Nuance does not make a demo download available.

IRIS ReadIRIS Pro 14 for Mac

Affordable PDF Conversion for Macintosh users using the latest version of the IRIS OCR engine.

IRIS ReadIRIS Corporate 14 for Mac

Adds support for files over 50 pages, business card recognition, as well as automatic processing of hot folders.

Personal PDF Conversion

Nuance TextBridge

The classic TextBridge engine is still available as an affordable alternative to high priced engines.  It gives you an ultra-low cost, yet still accurate PDF Conversion with out all the extra features.  Allows you to output to web pages, Word documents and more while retaining the layout of the page, but does not include PDF output.
**NOT Compatible with Windows Vista**

SimpleOCR

Our own freeware OCR application provides acceptable accuracy for those who just need to convert a few pages and can't justify the cost of commercial OCR software.  Developers can use the command-line and SDK versions to integrate SimpleOCR with their custom applications.