Definition[]
Optical character recognition (OCR) is
| “ | a technology that uses an optical scanner and computer software to “read” human handwriting and convert it into electronic form.[1] | ” |
Overview[]
The technology allows dots or pixels to represent machine-generated characters in a raster image converted into digitally-coded text. In addition to recognizing and coding text, OCR programs attempt to recognize and code the structural elements of a document page, such as columns and non-text graphical elements.
References[]
- ↑ U.S. Census Bureau, Glossary (full-text).