OCR stands for optical character recognition. It is the process of examining page pixels and attempting to identify letters, numbers, and words. In a PDF, OCR is useful when a scan looks readable to a person but has no selectable text layer.
That distinction matters. A photograph of a contract is not the same as a PDF whose text can be copied. OCR creates an interpreted text layer so the document can be searched, quoted, or used as the starting point for another format.
OCR adds interpreted text to page images; it does not improve the underlying scan.
When OCR helps
OCR is useful for scanned invoices, archived paperwork, photographed pages, and documents received as image-only PDFs. It can save time when retyping the whole document would be impractical.
Filivox supports several OCR destinations. OCR PDF creates a searchable PDF workflow. OCR to Word is useful when the recognized text needs editing, while OCR to Text keeps the result simple and portable.
What affects recognition quality?
OCR works from the pixels it receives. Small type, low contrast, tilted pages, shadows, compression artifacts, handwriting, and unusual fonts all make the task harder. A clear scan with good alignment is a better starting point than a blurry photograph, even if both files have the same extension.
Straight, legible source pages give recognition a better chance of producing useful text.
Before processing, check that pages are not upside down, text is not cut off, and the important lines are large enough to read at normal zoom. If a number or name matters, plan to compare the OCR result with the original image.
OCR is not proof of accuracy
An OCR result can look convincing while containing one wrong character. That is especially important for dates, addresses, account numbers, measurements, and legal wording. Searchability is a convenience, not a guarantee that every character was interpreted correctly.
The returned document should be reviewed before it becomes the source for a decision or publication. Keep the original scan so a person can resolve uncertain text later.