When converting scanned invoices, reports or images into editable formats, OCR is required. If you are looking for the best free OCR solutions for mac like many others, we collect a list for you: a list of 12 powerful mac free ocr software or online, free OCR services to perform satisfactory OCR on digitized files for 2021.

Designed as a note-taking software, this one is defined as a computer program that is for free-form information collection and multi-user collaboration. As predicted a week ago, Microsoft has just released a version of its OneNote client for OS X—it's currently a free download in the Mac App Store, and it's available for any Mac running OS X. Learning Tools for OneNote is a free Add-in for OneNote that helps everyone improve reading and writing skills, including gifted learners, students with learning differences or a combination of any of a broad range of unique learning abilities. DOWNLOAD ADD-IN.

Full List of Mac Free OCR

Platform	Input	Output
1. PDF OCR X Community	Offline	PDF and Image	PDF, Text
Offline	PDF and Image	Text, Image
3. OneNote OCR	Offline	PDF and Image	Text
4. OCR App by LEAD Tools	Offline	PDF and Image	Text
5. Easy Screen OCR for Mac	Offline	Screenshot	Text
6. DigitEyeOCR	Offline	BMP and GIF	Text
7. Google Docs	Online	PDF and Image	PDF, Word, ODT, RTF, Text, HTML, ePub
Online	PDF and Image	Word, Excel, Text
Online	PDF and Image	Word, Excel, PPT, Text, ePub, HTML, etc.
Online	PDF and Image	Word, Excel, Text, ePub, PPT, DjVu, etc.
Online	PDF, Image and DjVu	PDF, Word, Text
Online	PDF and Image	PDF, Word, Text, RTF

Free Try on The Best Mac OCR Program

• Perform OCR on scanned documents and images
• OCR files and export as 10 editable formats
• Advanced OCR settings to improve OCR accuracy
• Batch OCR
• Recognize 27~200 languages
• High quality OCR results

Free Download

6 Best Free OCR Software for Mac in 2021

There are 2 types of free OCR solutions for Mac users, either online or offline. In this part, we list 6 top free OCR software for MacOS basing on text recognition accuracy and overall features.

1. PDF OCR X Community

PDF OCR X Community is a simple drag-and-drop utility that converts single-page PDFs and images into text documents or searchable PDF files, it supports for more than 60 languages. For multi-page PDFs and batch conversion features, you need to pay its enterprise version.

Download Address: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pdf-ocr-x-community-edition/id571442933?mt=12

Advantages:

1. Extremely easy to use;
2. Support both PDF and image;
3. Recognize 60 languages;

Disadvantages:

1. Free edition only OCR single-page PDF;
2. Formatting is messed up when working on complicate files;
3. Relatively slow OCR process;

2. Evernote

Evernote is a popular note-syncing service, enables users to collect, nuture and share ideas across desktop and mobile platforms. One of its easily overlooked features is automatic OCR service. Users will be allowed to add images into Evernote server for automatic OCR, you may have to wait, but 10 minutes will be quite enough to finish the OCR.

Download Address: https://evernote.com/download

Advantages:

1. Available for all platforms (MacOS, Windows, iOS, Android);
2. Support both PDF and image;
3. Recognize 28 languages;

Disadvantages:

1. Limited OCR feature when dealing with PDF (file size, pages, resolution, etc.);
2. Relatively slow OCR processing;

Evernote OCR review, how-to guide and troubleshooting

Evernote is one of the best and most popular cross-platform note-taking apps. In this article, you will find how to use Evernote OCR and what to do if Evernote OCR is not working.

READ MORE >

3. OneNote OCR

Microsoft OneNote is a program to take and manage notes anytime and anywhere. It greatly facilitates the collaborations between team members. Not only limited to manually input texts to create notes, Microsoft OneNote also embeds the OCR feature, OneNote OCR allowing users to recognize texts from images, so the image texts can be copied and paste as editable or searchable note.

Download Address: https://www.onenote.com/download

Advantages:

1. Available for all platforms;
2. Support both PDF and image;

Disadvantages:

1. Can only copy text from PDF or image, no formatting is retained;
2. OCR fails or crashes sometimes;

How to Do OneNote OCR on Image or PDF(Mac, Windows, iPad)

An impressive feature of OneNote is its built-in capability to do OneNote OCR. Here we are going to introduce OneNote OCR, demonstrate how to OCR image or PDF with OneNote.

READ MORE >

4. OCR App by LEADTOOLS

OCR App by LEADTOOLS is a MacOS application designed to recognize and extract texts from images. Also it offers a set of tools to improve the OCR accuracy, such as tweak OCR Engine Settings, flip, reverse, adjust binarization or brightness of the image. It can also perform OCR on scanned PDFs, but only export files as text. If you want o convert uploaded files to other format with LEADTOOLS, you will need to copy and paste to the text processor accordingly.

Download Address: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/leadtools-ocr/id604393629?mt=12

Advantages:

1. Easy to use;
2. Advanced settings to improve OCR accuracy;
3. Support both image and PDF;
4. Fast OCR;

Disadvantages:

1. Recognize only 5 languages;
2. No formatting is retained, only text;

5. Easy Screen OCR for Mac

It is a light and simple Mac free OCR software to recognize texts from images. All you need to do is, capturing the screenshots of your file first, then performing OCR on the file to make the image text copyable. Also, it allows users to save the screenshot as PNG or PDF format. However, this free OCR software for mac only allows users to OCR 20 images for free.

Download Address: https://easyscreenocr.com/

Advantages:

1. Easy to use;
2. Small in size;
3. Support to take screenshots from any files;

Disadvantages:

1. Only 20 images can be processed with OCR;
2. No formatting is retained;
3. Unstable OCR accuracy;

6. DigitEyeOCR

Though DigitEyeOCR has discontinued to update for many years, for users who are using MacOS 10.10 and earlier, it is still worth a try. It is a free OCR software for mac to recognize texts from BMP and GIF images. If you want to do OCR on other image formats, you will need to convert the file to DigitEye OCR supported formats.

Download Address: https://digiteyeocr.en.softonic.com/mac

Disadvantages:

1. Only support BMP and GIF;
2. Unstable OCR accuracy;
3. Relatively slow OCR process;
4. No update for years;

6 Best online, free Services for Mac

Also, there are quite a lot of online, free OCR services for mac users, but not all of them can actually perform OCR or bring satisfactory OCR results. And here we pick 6 best free OCR tools online according to our OCR testing.

7. Google Docs

Google Docs is a service offered by Google to manage web-based documents, like creating, editing Word, Spreadsheets, presentations, even store them online for easy access on different devices. Users can perform Google OCR on images, scanned PDFs, it is fast with basically satisfactory results.

Advantages:

1. Support images and PDF;
2. Excellent support on output format (searchable PDF, Word, ODT, RTF, TXT, HTML, ePub);
3. Edit files after OCR processing within Google Docs;

Disadvantages:

1. Require several steps to finish the OCR;
2. Unstable OCR accuracy;
3. Take time to process OCR;

8. Online OCR

Online OCR is an online OCR service that can recognize the texts and characters from scanned files and images. It requires no software installation, what you need to do is upload the file (not exceeding size of 5MB) as guided, choose the language and output format(Word, Excel or Text), then 'Convert' to start the OCR process. Once finish, a download link will be offered to download the converted file.

Advantages:

1. Support both image and PDF;
2. Easy to use;
3. Export files as Word, Excel and Text;
4. Recognize 46 languages;

Disadvantages:

1. Unstable OCR accuracy;
2. Need to manually adjust formatting in the output file;
3. Max file size limit 15 MB;

9. Online2PDF

Online2PDF is another online platform to manage PDF files, such as editing, compressing ,unlocking ,converting, merging, protecting and so on. Comparing with other online, free OCR tools, Online2pdf offers extended features to customize the output and support more output formats.

Advantages:

1. Batch OCR;
2. Support both image and PDF;
3. Excellent support for output format;
4. Allow customizing output files;

Disadvantages:

1. File quantity and size limit;
2. Recognize only 6 languages;
3. Unstable OCR accuracy;

10. ConvertioOCR

Convertio is an online, free tool to OCR image and scanned documents, then save them as various editable formats. You can upload files from local or via url, even icloud storage accounts. It allows users to perform OCR on a multiple-language file.

Advantages:

1. Upload files from local, URl or icloud storage services;
2. Recognize multiple-language file;
3. Excellent support for output formats (11 formats);
4. Convert all or specific pages;
5. Save converted files to Dropbox or Google Drive;

Disadvantages:

1. Unstable OCR accuracy;
2. Relatively slow OCR processs;
3. Need to manually adjust the formatting;
4. Only 10 pages can be done with OCR for free;

11. New OCR

New OCR can convert JPG, PNG, GIF, MBP, TIFF, PDF and DJVU files into Doc, TXT or PDF format. To improve the OCR accuracy, New OCR allows users to rotate images and analyze page layout before the OCR processing. If you want to export the files as other formats, you need to click the “Download” button at the bottom of its page to export.

Advantages:

1. Support image, PDF and DjVu files;
2. Export files as Word, Text and searchable PDF format;
3. Allow to rotate or analyze page layout for more accurate OCR results;

Disadvantages:

1. Unstable OCR accuracy;
2. Fail to do OCR sometimes;

12. Free Online OCR

Free Online OCR is a free service enabling users to convert images, scanned PDFs into editable and searchable text, such as DOC, RTF,TXT or PDF. It will rotate the pages automatically for accurate OCR, you can get editable files with nice formatting.

Advantages:

1. Support both image and PDF;
2. Export files as Word, PDF, Text and RTF;

Disadvantages:

1. Unstable OCR accuracy;
2. Need to manually adjust formatting in the output file;

What if Mac Free OCR Tools Fall Short?

However, these online/free mac OCR tools are not suitable for all mac users, you may feel not satisfied in one way or another:

1. There is a size limit of the files;
2. It doesn’t support various input or output format;
3. Risk of privacy leakages;
4. The tool doesn’t support your expected language;
5. The OCR result is not satisfied;
6. It is feature limited;

......

As we all know, “free” means you cannot get everything you desire from the service, if you require higher than those free services can offer, you will need to pay. This is also true to OCR services.

Best Solution If Mac Free OCR Software/Service Not Working

Choices on paid professional OCR software for Mac users are large in quantity. But if you are looking for the one combining simplicity, versatility and affordability, Cisdem PDF Converter OCR is absolutely the best choice.

Cisdem PDF Converter OCR is a dedicated Mac OCR software to convert and create PDF, also perform OCR on scanned documents or images to make them editable & searchable. One thing makes Cisdem outperform its competitors is its high quality OCR performance：accurate OCR results and maintained original formatting.

Use Cisdem to OCR All Files Now

• Convert PDF to 16 formats;
• OCR scanned documents and images into Word, Excel, PPT, Keynote, Pages, etc;
• Convert images;
• Create PDF from virtually all documents;
• Batch conversion;
• High quality OCR and conversion results;

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Steps to Perform OCR on Files with Cisdem

1. Add scanned PDF or image to Converter interface.
   Drag and drop, or click '+' to add files.
2. Turn the OCR button ON, choose page range, file language and output format.
3. Optional. Tweak the advanced OCR settings for more accurate results.
   Click the 'Settings' icon, a new interface will appear. You will find all the contents are marked as Texts, Images or Tables in different colorful boxes. If you want to output a part as table, remove the current mark box, click on 'Mark Tables' in the OCR applied zone, then drag a mark box to select the part you want to mark as Tables.
4. Click “Convert” to start OCR.

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Note: Support for Office 2016 for Mac ended on October 13, 2020. For more information, see End of support for Office 2016 for Mac.

Microsoft Office 2016 - Unmistakably Office, designed for Mac.

The new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote provide the best of both worlds for Mac users - the familiar Office experience paired with the best of Mac. If you already use Office on a PC or iPad, you will find yourself right at home in Office 2016 for Mac. It works the way you expect, with the familiar ribbon interface and powerful task panes. Mac users will appreciate the modernized Office experience and the integration of Mac capabilities like Full-Screen view and Multi-TouchTM gestures. With full Retina display support, your Office documents look sharper and more vibrant than ever.

Office for Mac is cloud-connected, so you can quickly get to the documents you’ve recently used on other devices and pick up where you left off. New, built-in document sharing tools make it easy to invite teammates to work on a document together. When sharing documents, you won’t have to worry about losing content or formatting, as Office for Mac offers unparalleled compatibility with Office on PCs, tablets, phones and online.

Office 2016 is a version of the Office productivity suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc), typically accessed via the desktop. Office 365 is a cloud-based subscription to a suite of programs including Office 2016. This means you have a few options for purchasing Office 2016: a stand-alone product or as part of an Office 365 subscription.

If you are looking for Office 365 or Office 2019 for Mac, please click here