Optical Character Recognition
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is the process of converting text images or scanned documents in order to extract the text included in a digital format for further processing. It may be needed as a pre-translation process. It may also come as a separate process. If you have scanned text files, it would be a very cost effective way to save money and benefit from the scanned documents instead of having to re-type them again from scratch. The process could be applied to any language, and any valid file type.
OCR is a multiple-phase process which includes both machine processing and human factor. First, the files are processed by specialized software in order to recognize the characters of the script included in the document(s). Following that, the extracted script undergoes a human revision process in order to correct OCR errors; if any, making sure that the produced version is identical to the original one. Such errors in the first phase of the process happen for a reason. Actually, the whole process is evaluated per case and has different parameters each time according to the files in hand.
Over the years, and based on our deep experience, Ultra Localize has built its own work cycle that is applied to each individual project after we receive the files. Our process consists of Evaluation, Analysis, Workflow, Timetable, and Quotation. While the process itself has predefined phases and steps, the work done on each project is different according to many factors.
In Ultra Localize, we always use the best cutting-edge technology and rely on the most experienced specialized experts in order to always guarantee your OCR project is performed at the highest level of quality, delivered in the shortest time, and priced at the lowest cost.
OCR process depends mainly on the files in hand, in terms of both the nature of content and the quality of scanning. The workflow, time consumed for processing and post-editing, effort needed, and also the cost, they all depend on many factors regarding the files to be processed. Such factors include the quality of scanning files, the quality of typing, the font of text, whether the text was typed digitally or handwriting, whether the text contains symbols; special characters; abbreviations, etc.
One of the main factors of the OCR process is the language of the script. Western languages, with left-to-right (LTR) script direction, like English, French, etc. are easier to process. While Eastern languages, with right-to-left (RTL) script direction, like Arabic, require more effort to process. A special attention is also need when processing scripts in Asian languages, with Top-to-bottom (TTB) script direction, like Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.
In all cases, there is no need to worry. No matter the case is, Ultra Localize is always ready to process your files in the best way possible, in terms of quality, time and cost.