How to Improve OCR Accuracy
OCR (optical character recognition) turns a scanned document into editable text. Output quality depends heavily on input quality. A few simple steps can sharply lower the error rate.
Quick answer: what drives OCR accuracy?
Four things matter most: resolution (300 DPI or higher is ideal), contrast (dark text on light background), alignment (no skew), and noise (minimal shadows, smudges, creases). Fix these and the extract text from PDF tool or the scanned PDF to Excel flow returns much cleaner results.
5 quick fixes before scanning
- Scan at 300 DPI or higher; more for small fonts.
- Place the document flat and aligned; remove skew.
- Use even, shadow-free lighting (especially for phone photos).
- Prefer a plain white background over colored ones.
- Save as PDF or high-quality PNG; avoid heavily compressed JPEG.
Documents captured by phone
If you photograph receipts and invoices, fill the frame and avoid blur. See the PDF to Excel guide for a practical flow.
Post-extraction review
After OCR, review dates, amounts, and numeric fields; the most common errors are 0/O and 1/l swaps. Clean it quickly on the table with the edit spreadsheet with AI flow.
Frequently asked questions
Is handwriting readable?
Printed text is far more reliable; handwriting lowers accuracy.
Which file format is best?
A clean PDF or high-resolution PNG usually beats compressed JPEG.
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