Quick summary
Practical image-quality, language and verification techniques for more accurate OCR on invoices, forms and procurement documents. This guide gives you a clear, practical explanation before you use the related online tool.
Use enough resolution
Text should be clearly distinguishable without excessive enlargement. Around 200–300 DPI is a useful target for many printed business documents.
Straighten and crop
Skewed text makes line detection harder. Rotate the page correctly and remove large borders, backgrounds or unrelated objects.
Improve contrast
Faint grey text, shadows and coloured paper reduce separation between characters and background. A clean, evenly lit scan usually performs better than a phone photo taken at an angle.
Choose the minimum language set
An unrelated language model can introduce alternative character predictions. Use one language whenever possible.
Watch high-risk characters
Common confusions include O and 0, I and 1, S and 5, decimal commas and points, and similar characters across scripts. Verify codes and financial values character by character.
Use confidence intelligently
Confidence can prioritise review but should not be treated as a guarantee. A high-confidence total can still be wrong when the source is ambiguous.
Continue with a free tool
Related FormatForge tools
Multilingual Document OCR
Extract editable text from scanned invoices, purchase orders and delivery notes using browser-based OCR for English, Greek, Hindi, Arabic, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch.
Open tool →Rotate PDF
Rotate selected PDF pages to correct sideways or upside-down scans without rebuilding the document.
Open tool →Compress PDF
Reduce PDF file size for email, uploads and document sharing.
Open tool →Frequently asked questions
Is 300 DPI always required?
No, but it is a practical target for small printed text. Clear lower-resolution images may also work.
Does PDF compression hurt OCR?
Aggressive image compression can blur characters and reduce accuracy.
Can OCR fix a blurry photo?
It cannot recover details that are not present. Rescan the document when possible.
Why are tables sometimes misaligned?
OCR recognises text and layout imperfectly; complex borders and merged cells can disrupt reading order.
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