Often abbreviated as OCR refers to the branch of computer science that involves reading text from paper and translating the images into a form that the computer can manipulate (for example, into ASCII codes).

An OCR system enables you to take a document, book or a magazine article, feed it directly into an electronic computer file, and then edit the file using a word processing software. All OCR systems include an optical scanner for reading text, and sophisticated software for analyzing images.

Most modern document management software will have OCR capabilities incorporated readily or can be customized to do so. Most OCR systems use a combination of hardware (specialized circuit boards) and software to recognize characters, although some inexpensive systems do it entirely through software. Advanced OCR systems can read text in large variety of fonts, but they still have difficulty with handwritten text even though there efforts being made with new technology to have an improved recognition of penmanship.

The potential of OCR systems is enormous because they enable users to harness the power of computers to access printed documents that can not be produced from the original electronic source. OCR is already being used widely in the legal profession, where searches that once required hours or days can now be accomplished in a few seconds.