Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

[OP-tuh-kuhl KARR-uhk-tuh reck-uhg-NISH-uhn] /ˈɒptɪkᵊl ˈkærəktə ˌrɛkəɡˈnɪʃᵊn/

Technology that converts text in images (like scanned pages) into machine-readable text. OCR makes printed documents searchable and easier to reuse, making it a foundational technology in the digitisation of archive and historic materials. Accuracy depends on scan quality, fonts, layout complexity and language.

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