

It’s a relatively small investment for something you’ll probably use a lot and will save you so much lost time and energy correcting the errors that free OCR tools make. Our top recommendation is the amazing Acrobat Pro DC by Adobe which actually invented the PDF format and is by far the best solution when it comes to OCR scanning and then editing PDFs. If you want something that’s going to scan documents quickly, accurately and preserve the formatting you need one of these best OCR tools on your Mac. PDF OCR X Community Edition for Mac functions well and offers an easy-to-use solution for users looking for an application that can create searchable one-page documents from PDFs or for those who need to quickly extract text from an image.Let’s be clear from the start, you’re not going to get great results with free OCR software. The community version of the program only supports one page PDFs, though, which is a frustrating limitation. The tested PDF converted to text well, without any transcription errors. The output file is automatically loaded for review and can then be saved or discarded easily.

Clicking a well-labeled convert button initiates the process, which completes quickly. These include preferred language, the number of columns, and different text wrapping types. Once moved into the program, an additional menu comes up where users can select from a number of input and output settings.

Files can also be manually selected from a Finder window via a drop-down menu. The main interface of PDF OCR X consists of a small, unassuming window where PDF files can be dragged and dropped. The application's basic interface couldn't be easier to use, and it worked like a charm in our tests but this version of the app limits you to one-page conversions. It works with both PDFs generated from a document and scanned PDFs. PDF OCR X Community Edition for Mac converts PDFs and images into text or searchable PDF documents.
