OCR scans to text

Read scans to text — even the messy ones.

Handwriting, faded receipts, sideways scans and mixed-language pages — read back as clean, structured text, with tables preserved. Free up to 5 a day.

Input · faded scan

Minutes — 14 March
Present: J. Owens, R. Patel
Apologies: none
Budget carried 1,240 …
Next review: April

Read · clean text

Minutes — 14 March
Present: J. Owens, R. Patel
Apologies: none
Budget carried — £1,240
Next review: April

Where it shines

Built for the pages that trip up older OCR.

Handwriting

Notes, letters and field journals read far more reliably than the legacy engines built for print.

Faded or smudged

Low-contrast and degraded scans are read in context, the way a person fills in a word they can half-see.

Tables preserved

Grids come back as a markdown table or CSV, not a jumble of loose, mis-positioned numbers.

Mixed scripts

Two languages on one page are usually read in a single pass on the Pro reader.

Receipts & whiteboards

Dedicated modes pull out totals, dates and board notes cleanly.

You stay in control

The read text sits beside your original, so you can fix anything before you use it.

How it works

From scan to text in four steps.

1

Capture

Photograph or scan the document — a phone shot is fine.

2

Drop it in

Drop the file on the reader; no account needed.

3

Review

Check the read text beside the original and tidy anything that needs it.

4

Export

Copy, or download as text, markdown or CSV.

Honest about accuracy

Print scans read near-perfectly; messy cursive is harder. You always see the read text beside your original, so you can fix anything before you use it.

How does this compare to ABBYY FineReader?

FineReader is excellent for clean printed text. Our reader is stronger on handwriting, mixed languages and degraded scans. For pure print the gap is narrow — both read it well.

Does it work on photos of paper, not just scans?

Yes. Phone shots, whiteboard photos and receipt snapshots all read fine. Good light and a flat page help.

What about Arabic, Chinese or handwritten Japanese?

Many languages are supported, and right-to-left scripts are usually preserved. The free in-browser reader is tuned for English; other scripts read best on the Pro reader.

Can I read many scans at once?

Free reads one at a time. Pro lets you drop a folder and get a zip of transcripts back.