I was surprised and somewhat perplexed to see options for Excel (.xlsx) and PowerPoint (.pptx) files, but that was mostly due to the fact that I rarely use either application. (All of those options are also available for RTF and ODT/OpenOffice.) You can also export to Word (.docx), including four layout options (exact copy, editable copy, formatted text, plain text), plus options to retain page numbers, headers and footers keep line breaks and hyphenation keep page breaks keep pictures keep text and background colors high line uncertain characters and keep line numbers. Export as Word (or RTF or ODT), Excel, CSV, or PowerPointĮxporting as PDF is only the beginning.

This is especially useful if you want to edit the resulting PDF to correct any OCR mistakes, which will still happen, regardless of which app you choose. However, the option for 'Text over the page image' will allow you to keep the formatting close to the original, but edit the results, if needed, and see it on the screen. 'Text under the page image' is what most people usually expect and want from an OCR app: the OCR'd document looks the same on the screen, but you can copy/paste from it into any other application. Its automatic analysis was generally good, but when I took the time to use its more advanced features, it rewarded me with output that was as near-perfect as anyone can expect from an OCR application.įineReader then gives you an unparalleled assortment of export options, including four different options for PDFs alone: Time and time again, FineReader came through. Some of them are pretty good quality, but a few of them have image hovers best described as 'a hasty Xerox made on a Friday afternoon before Spring Break by a work-study student who was far more interested in literally anything else.' Crooked, dark, speckled, you name it. I have thousands of journal articles saved as PDFs. If the most important feature of an OCR app is how well it does at recognizing text from a PDF or image file, then FineReader Pro is, by far, the best OCR app that I have ever used.

If you want fine-grained control over OCR and unmatched export options to a plethora of formats, ABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac is definitely worth a close look, but the current version has some significant caveats which you should consider before spending US$100 on it.

Abbyy finereader pro review