Embracing the Digital Era: Top 3 Mobile Scanning and OCR Apps of 2023

Are you still leveraging photos to transition documents from paper to digital? It's time to discover the capabilities of OCR scanning software, which are much more efficient and versatile.

For starters, these scanning apps are excellent for digitizing business documents and identification forms. In addition though, they are versatile enough to convert a wide array of documents including books, receipts, certificates, or even a page of handwritten notes.

After rigorous testing of numerous mobile scanning and OCR tools over the years, we've curated a list of the top three that are poised to revolutionize your document management.

Mobile scanning and OCR software are valuable tools that offer a convenient way to convert your documents to a digital format. Even without a scanner, these mobile scanning apps enable quick digitization of documents. The addition of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology turns your scanned documents into editable digital files.

We've considered several key factors during our testing, such as auto-scanning capabilities, accuracy, effective file management, customization options, and versatility in scanning modes. Based on these criteria, here are our top picks:

1. Best OCR Software: Adobe Scan

   Adobe Scan stands out with its diverse scanning modes, including books, documents, business cards, ID cards, and whiteboards. Additionally, its automatic detection of phone numbers and URLs, making them clickable, is a standout feature for professionals on the move. Despite minor issues with accuracy, Adobe Scan's basic file management and editing capabilities give it an edge over other OCR software. Additional features are available in a premium plan.

   Adobe Scan price: $9.99/month or $69.99/year for premium features.

   For Android users, Smart Lens serves as a good alternative to Adobe Scan.

2. Top OCR Scanner for iPhone Users: Apple Notes

   Apple Notes, although primarily a note-taking app, makes the list due to its effective OCR features. It has minor difficulties when scanning large sections of text but generally delivers excellent accuracy. As a free, pre-installed app on your iPhone, Apple Notes is an ideal option for quick and accurate OCR tasks, particularly for smaller sections of text.

   Apple Notes price: Free

3. Top OCR App from Google: Google Lens

   Google Lens, when used in combination with Google Photos, provides a robust set of features, including immediate web search access using scanned or digitized text, as well as integrated Google Translate. While Google Lens doesn't store digitized files or text, its text extraction and recognition functionality are commendable. It's a convenient tool to have for text digitization, especially for non-professional purposes.

   Google Lens price: Free

   Android users can consider Text Fairy as a good alternative to Google Lens, with over 110 languages support and a text-to-speech feature.

How to Leverage Your Phone's Scanning Capabilities?

All these apps allow you to scan and edit text, showcasing their impressive capabilities. Interestingly, your phone might already have some of these features built-in. For instance, iPhones and iPads enable you to capture a picture or screenshot, highlight the text, copy, and paste it. While you may need to adjust the formatting slightly, the convenience factor is undeniably high.

So, embrace the digital era and take control of your document management with these leading mobile scanning and OCR apps. It's time to move away from the paper-dependent processes and step into the future.