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OCR Lab

Optical Character Recognition

Copy & Paste Text
Search a document

Ctrl+F (Windows)
Command+F (Mac)

Part of “PDF Remediation”

The process of making a digital document accessible, including adding OCR, ALT text, a reading order, color contrast, and more.
This allows for screen reader accessibility and an easier viewing/searching experience when using digital materials. It also keeps the library and university legally compliant.

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Journal Article without OCR

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OCR (Optical Character Recognition) Lab

Starting with Adobe, attempt to use OCR on the document.
Choose at least one additional tool and attempt OCR on the document.

ocr.space

Free tool available online with many features

Ask Google Gemini or AI of your choice to perform OCR on the document
ABBYY FineReader OCR Editor

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Screenshots of Adobe’s Scan & OCR tool.

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Journal Articles without OCR, continued

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Journal Article with OCR corrections for review

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Screenshots of Adobe’s Scan & OCR tool for review.

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Highlighted text revealing the OCR layer in Adobe.

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Copied text from OCR performed by Adobe’s Scan & OCR tool.

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ABBYY FineReader page view. Document on the left, OCR layer on the right before correction.

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ABBYY FineReader OCR Editor Verify Pop-Up Window.

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Copied text from OCR performed by ABBYY FineReader.

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A typical student response.

I did the OCR lab during class using Adobe Acrobat. It was useful, but it was also slightly frustrating. At first I thought it would be very simple and kinda work itself out, but it took me a little bit to find the right tool and figure it out. Adobe Acrobat did do most of the work automatically, but not well in some parts? There were a couple of parts where a word was very clearly written and there were no smudges and it was still like, what word is that?

I liked that I could search for words in the document and copy parts of the text instead of having to retype everything myself. That part was pretty helpful. Some words did not come out correctly, especially if the scan was blurry or the text was small. I also noticed that the formatting did not always stay the same, so I would still need to review the document carefully afterward. Even thought Adobe helped, it was not something I could completely trust without checking. I also wasn't a fan of how tedious it was. Sometimes I could see myself enjoying the tedious work and doing it while listening to music or something but at the time I was not a fan.

I guess I could see myself using Abobe Acrobat again, probably for school or work documents.

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My favorite student response, and my grade and comment.

If I could hang the programmers who made this from a million tiny little fish hooks over shark infested waters, I would. Gravity would do the rest, I would then kickback and relax with a large popcorn bucket from the movie theater to watch.

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Email response to student using AI.

I've reviewed your submission of the OCR Lab assignment. While your summary accurately captures the general market reputation of Adobe Acrobat, ABBYY FineReader, and OneNote, the goal of this specific assignment was to document your personal experience while attempting to OCR a specific document during the lab.

Your response reads more like a product review of what "people" or "users" think, rather than a reflection of your own technical process. The prompt asked for specific details on what surprised you and what you found frustrating during your actual attempts to use the software.

To receive credit for this assignment, please redo the submission following these steps:

Attempt OCR (Optical Character Recognition) using the "OCR Lab document" posted on Moodle under Thursday, April 9th: with at least 2 different of the following programs:

1. Adobe Acrobat's "Scan & OCR" tool - available in the computer lab on the 1st floor of the library. You may make an appointment with me to get you set up.

2. ABBYY FineReader - you would have to make an appointment with me to use the Library's license on a specific computer.

3. ocr.space - a free tool available online with many features

4. Ask Google Gemini or the AI of your choice to perform OCR on the document.

Answer the prompt: tell me exactly what happened when you tried to use these OCR tools. Focus on your personal workflow rather than general pros and cons found online.

You may have one week from today to resubmit this assignment to me via email.

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Recommendations

Adobe’s Accessibility Tool

Useful for PDF Remediation

It will check your document for accessibility and make suggestions
Add descriptive ALT text to images
Choose reading order for screen readers

One-Shot Library Instruction Sessions

Highlight the benefits of requesting accessible book chapters and articles through Interlibrary Loan (ILL)
Hidden disabilities, diverse learning styles

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Journal Article with OCR corrections for review, continued

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Submitting items to Institutional Repository

Contains faculty, staff, and student scholarship
Is a permanent platform for scholarship
Items are freely accessible, OCR-verified, and have a permanent link

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Creating Open Educational Resources (OER)

OER are teaching resources that are free of cost and access barriers, and also carry legal permission for open use, which allows anyone to freely use, adapt, and share the resource�
Elements of Creative Commons Licenses

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Finding and using open images

Sharing work with an open license, your images must be:

Content that you created that has an open license on it

and/or�

Content that someone else created that has an open license or is in the public domain.

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Questions?

Contact Info:

Jan Juliani, Special Collections & Digital Projects Librarian�Southern Oregon University�541.552.6839�julianij@sou.edu �

Holly Gabriel, Open Access & Government Information Librarian�Southern Oregon University�541.552.6595�gabrielh@sou.edu