What is your favorite free or low cost OCR solution?

By Larry Thacker Jr., 28 June, 2016

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

I've been asked to do a presentation on the iPhone next month. Some already have them but I don't think the overall knowledge level is very high. So I am thinking that the best way to go is an overview of the most likely apps one might want to use. That leads to my question. I use KNFB Reader, but not everyone can afford the price. What would people recommend as an alternative solution for OCR?

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Comments

By Peter Verhoeven on Saturday, June 25, 2016 - 23:43

I tried several OCR apps, but none of them worked for me. The KNFB Reader is too expensive. Also strange that there is no trial version.

By Nathan Stocking on Saturday, June 25, 2016 - 23:43

I own various OCR solutions that each have some useful points. Prizmo is one I use often for documents, and is, in my opinion, well-suited to the task. Another is voiceCam, which only functions in English and does not do documents, but instead allows you to discover text on the fly and read it. Another good option is textGrabber from ABBYY, which is another standard document OCR program.

By riyu12345 (not verified) on Saturday, June 25, 2016 - 23:43

Hello.

I made a mistake in buying this app. I thought I'd support the developer. I already have KNFB reader but I liked the idea of being able to point my phone at text and have it read out without taking a picture. A friend and I wrote to the company, (He downloaded the app as well) to express our disappointment with the app. If we do not hear back from them within five days, we will be getting a refund. I've just re read over the page from blind bargains and have found i've made a mistake. The app I downloaded along side my friend is not their latest OCR app. I might try the latest app but I don't know if it will be worth it.

By Martijn - Spar… on Saturday, June 25, 2016 - 23:43

We have just launched an update to our app 'Talking Goggles', which speaks out anything it sees with the camera. The 'photo mode' of the app has been improved a lot, it will now make sense of almost any image. If it finds text, handwritten or typed, it will speak it out for you.
It is not a traditional OCR solution, but we have priced it very low so give it a go, it may be helpful to you.

It can be found here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/talking-goggles-camera-speech/id602999586?mt=8

If you have any suggestions, please let me know, we will work on further updates.

Martijn