05-10-2021

When converting scanned invoices, reports or images into editable formats, OCR is required. If you are looking for the best free OCR solutions for mac like many others, we collect a list for you: a list of 12 powerful mac free ocr software or online, free OCR services to perform satisfactory OCR on digitized files for 2021.

Full List of Mac Free OCR

PlatformInputOutput
1. PDF OCR X CommunityOfflinePDF and ImagePDF, Text
OfflinePDF and ImageText, Image
3. OneNote OCROfflinePDF and ImageText
4. OCR App by LEAD ToolsOfflinePDF and ImageText
5. Easy Screen OCR for MacOfflineScreenshotText
6. DigitEyeOCROfflineBMP and GIFText
7. Google DocsOnlinePDF and ImagePDF, Word, ODT, RTF, Text, HTML, ePub
OnlinePDF and ImageWord, Excel, Text
OnlinePDF and ImageWord, Excel, PPT, Text, ePub, HTML, etc.
OnlinePDF and ImageWord, Excel, Text, ePub, PPT, DjVu, etc.
OnlinePDF, Image and DjVuPDF, Word, Text
OnlinePDF and ImagePDF, Word, Text, RTF

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Free Try on The Best Mac OCR Program

  • Perform OCR on scanned documents and images
  • OCR files and export as 10 editable formats
  • Advanced OCR settings to improve OCR accuracy
  • Batch OCR
  • Recognize 27~200 languages
  • High quality OCR results
Free Download

6 Best Free OCR Software for Mac in 2021

There are 2 types of free OCR solutions for Mac users, either online or offline. In this part, we list 6 top free OCR software for MacOS basing on text recognition accuracy and overall features.

1. PDF OCR X Community

PDF OCR X Community is a simple drag-and-drop utility that converts single-page PDFs and images into text documents or searchable PDF files, it supports for more than 60 languages. For multi-page PDFs and batch conversion features, you need to pay its enterprise version.

Download Address: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pdf-ocr-x-community-edition/id571442933?mt=12

Advantages:

  1. Extremely easy to use;
  2. Support both PDF and image;
  3. Recognize 60 languages;

Disadvantages:

  1. Free edition only OCR single-page PDF;
  2. Formatting is messed up when working on complicate files;
  3. Relatively slow OCR process;

2. Evernote

Evernote is a popular note-syncing service, enables users to collect, nuture and share ideas across desktop and mobile platforms. One of its easily overlooked features is automatic OCR service. Users will be allowed to add images into Evernote server for automatic OCR, you may have to wait, but 10 minutes will be quite enough to finish the OCR.

Download Address: https://evernote.com/download

Advantages:

  1. Available for all platforms (MacOS, Windows, iOS, Android);
  2. Support both PDF and image;
  3. Recognize 28 languages;

Disadvantages:

  1. Limited OCR feature when dealing with PDF (file size, pages, resolution, etc.);
  2. Relatively slow OCR processing;

Evernote OCR review, how-to guide and troubleshooting

Evernote is one of the best and most popular cross-platform note-taking apps. In this article, you will find how to use Evernote OCR and what to do if Evernote OCR is not working.

READ MORE >

3. OneNote OCR

Microsoft OneNote is a program to take and manage notes anytime and anywhere. It greatly facilitates the collaborations between team members. Not only limited to manually input texts to create notes, Microsoft OneNote also embeds the OCR feature, OneNote OCR allowing users to recognize texts from images, so the image texts can be copied and paste as editable or searchable note.

Download Address: https://www.onenote.com/download

Advantages:

  1. Available for all platforms;
  2. Support both PDF and image;

Disadvantages:

  1. Can only copy text from PDF or image, no formatting is retained;
  2. OCR fails or crashes sometimes;

How to Do OneNote OCR on Image or PDF(Mac, Windows, iPad)

An impressive feature of OneNote is its built-in capability to do OneNote OCR. Here we are going to introduce OneNote OCR, demonstrate how to OCR image or PDF with OneNote.

READ MORE >

4. OCR App by LEADTOOLS

OCR App by LEADTOOLS is a MacOS application designed to recognize and extract texts from images. Also it offers a set of tools to improve the OCR accuracy, such as tweak OCR Engine Settings, flip, reverse, adjust binarization or brightness of the image. It can also perform OCR on scanned PDFs, but only export files as text. If you want o convert uploaded files to other format with LEADTOOLS, you will need to copy and paste to the text processor accordingly.

Download Address: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/leadtools-ocr/id604393629?mt=12

Advantages:

  1. Easy to use;
  2. Advanced settings to improve OCR accuracy;
  3. Support both image and PDF;
  4. Fast OCR;

Disadvantages:

  1. Recognize only 5 languages;
  2. No formatting is retained, only text;

5. Easy Screen OCR for Mac

It is a light and simple Mac free OCR software to recognize texts from images. All you need to do is, capturing the screenshots of your file first, then performing OCR on the file to make the image text copyable. Also, it allows users to save the screenshot as PNG or PDF format. However, this free OCR software for mac only allows users to OCR 20 images for free.

Download Address: https://easyscreenocr.com/

Advantages:

  1. Easy to use;
  2. Small in size;
  3. Support to take screenshots from any files;
Mac

Disadvantages:

  1. Only 20 images can be processed with OCR;
  2. No formatting is retained;
  3. Unstable OCR accuracy;

6. DigitEyeOCR

Though DigitEyeOCR has discontinued to update for many years, for users who are using MacOS 10.10 and earlier, it is still worth a try. It is a free OCR software for mac to recognize texts from BMP and GIF images. If you want to do OCR on other image formats, you will need to convert the file to DigitEye OCR supported formats.

Download Address: https://digiteyeocr.en.softonic.com/mac

Disadvantages:

  1. Only support BMP and GIF;
  2. Unstable OCR accuracy;
  3. Relatively slow OCR process;
  4. No update for years;

6 Best online, free Services for Mac

Also, there are quite a lot of online, free OCR services for mac users, but not all of them can actually perform OCR or bring satisfactory OCR results. And here we pick 6 best free OCR tools online according to our OCR testing.

7. Google Docs

Google Docs is a service offered by Google to manage web-based documents, like creating, editing Word, Spreadsheets, presentations, even store them online for easy access on different devices. Users can perform Google OCR on images, scanned PDFs, it is fast with basically satisfactory results.

Advantages:

  1. Support images and PDF;
  2. Excellent support on output format (searchable PDF, Word, ODT, RTF, TXT, HTML, ePub);
  3. Edit files after OCR processing within Google Docs;

Disadvantages:

Top Mac Software Free
  1. Require several steps to finish the OCR;
  2. Unstable OCR accuracy;
  3. Take time to process OCR;

8. Online OCR

Online OCR is an online OCR service that can recognize the texts and characters from scanned files and images. It requires no software installation, what you need to do is upload the file (not exceeding size of 5MB) as guided, choose the language and output format(Word, Excel or Text), then 'Convert' to start the OCR process. Once finish, a download link will be offered to download the converted file.

Advantages:

  1. Support both image and PDF;
  2. Easy to use;
  3. Export files as Word, Excel and Text;
  4. Recognize 46 languages;

Disadvantages:

  1. Unstable OCR accuracy;
  2. Need to manually adjust formatting in the output file;
  3. Max file size limit 15 MB;

9. Online2PDF

Online2PDF is another online platform to manage PDF files, such as editing, compressing ,unlocking ,converting, merging, protecting and so on. Comparing with other online, free OCR tools, Online2pdf offers extended features to customize the output and support more output formats.

Advantages:

  1. Batch OCR;
  2. Support both image and PDF;
  3. Excellent support for output format;
  4. Allow customizing output files;

Disadvantages:

  1. File quantity and size limit;
  2. Recognize only 6 languages;
  3. Unstable OCR accuracy;

10. ConvertioOCR

Convertio is an online, free tool to OCR image and scanned documents, then save them as various editable formats. You can upload files from local or via url, even icloud storage accounts. It allows users to perform OCR on a multiple-language file.

Advantages:

  1. Upload files from local, URl or icloud storage services;
  2. Recognize multiple-language file;
  3. Excellent support for output formats (11 formats);
  4. Convert all or specific pages;
  5. Save converted files to Dropbox or Google Drive;

Disadvantages:

  1. Unstable OCR accuracy;
  2. Relatively slow OCR processs;
  3. Need to manually adjust the formatting;
  4. Only 10 pages can be done with OCR for free;

11. New OCR

New OCR can convert JPG, PNG, GIF, MBP, TIFF, PDF and DJVU files into Doc, TXT or PDF format. To improve the OCR accuracy, New OCR allows users to rotate images and analyze page layout before the OCR processing. If you want to export the files as other formats, you need to click the “Download” button at the bottom of its page to export.

Advantages:

  1. Support image, PDF and DjVu files;
  2. Export files as Word, Text and searchable PDF format;
  3. Allow to rotate or analyze page layout for more accurate OCR results;

Disadvantages:

  1. Unstable OCR accuracy;
  2. Fail to do OCR sometimes;

12. Free Online OCR

Free Online OCR is a free service enabling users to convert images, scanned PDFs into editable and searchable text, such as DOC, RTF,TXT or PDF. It will rotate the pages automatically for accurate OCR, you can get editable files with nice formatting.

Advantages:

  1. Support both image and PDF;
  2. Export files as Word, PDF, Text and RTF;

Disadvantages:

  1. Unstable OCR accuracy;
  2. Need to manually adjust formatting in the output file;

What if Mac Free OCR Tools Fall Short?

However, these online/free mac OCR tools are not suitable for all mac users, you may feel not satisfied in one way or another:

  1. There is a size limit of the files;
  2. It doesn’t support various input or output format;
  3. Risk of privacy leakages;
  4. The tool doesn’t support your expected language;
  5. The OCR result is not satisfied;
  6. It is feature limited;

......

As we all know, “free” means you cannot get everything you desire from the service, if you require higher than those free services can offer, you will need to pay. This is also true to OCR services.

Best Solution If Mac Free OCR Software/Service Not Working

Choices on paid professional OCR software for Mac users are large in quantity. But if you are looking for the one combining simplicity, versatility and affordability, Cisdem PDF Converter OCR is absolutely the best choice.

Cisdem PDF Converter OCR is a dedicated Mac OCR software to convert and create PDF, also perform OCR on scanned documents or images to make them editable & searchable. One thing makes Cisdem outperform its competitors is its high quality OCR performance:accurate OCR results and maintained original formatting.

Use Cisdem to OCR All Files Now

  • Convert PDF to 16 formats;
  • OCR scanned documents and images into Word, Excel, PPT, Keynote, Pages, etc;
  • Convert images;
  • Create PDF from virtually all documents;
  • Batch conversion;
  • High quality OCR and conversion results;
Free Download

Steps to Perform OCR on Files with Cisdem

  1. Add scanned PDF or image to Converter interface.
    Drag and drop, or click '+' to add files.
  2. Turn the OCR button ON, choose page range, file language and output format.
  3. Optional. Tweak the advanced OCR settings for more accurate results.
    Click the 'Settings' icon, a new interface will appear. You will find all the contents are marked as Texts, Images or Tables in different colorful boxes. If you want to output a part as table, remove the current mark box, click on 'Mark Tables' in the OCR applied zone, then drag a mark box to select the part you want to mark as Tables.
  4. Click “Convert” to start OCR.

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By Jessica | Posted to Home > NTFS for Mac Tips, updated on July 27th, 2021 |

This post compares 8 NTFS for Mac software, including freeware and paid app.

They will help you read NTFS drive on Mac and write to NTFS files on Mac, solving your Mac external hard drive read only problem.

  1. Best free NTFS for Mac:
  2. 1. iBoysoft NTFS for Mac
  3. 2. iBoysoft DiskGeeker
  4. 3. Mounty for NTFS
  5. 4. NTFS-3G
  6. 5. FUSE for macOS
  7. 6. SL-NTFS
  8. 7. Paragon NTFS for Mac
  9. 8. Tuxera NTFS for Mac

1. iBoysoft NTFS for Mac

iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is the ultimate NTFS for Mac solution to mount NTFS drives in read-write mode on your Mac.

#7-day free trial#NTFS for M1 Mac#NTFS for Mac Big Sur#NTFS for Mac Monterey
  • Pros:
  • 7-day free trial
  • Support macOS from High Sierra to Monterey Beta
  • Compatible with Apple Silicon M1 Mac
  • Repair NTFS file system errors
  • Erase NTFS volumes for data cleanup
  • Format drive to NTFS

How to use iBoysoft NTFS for Mac for free

  • 1. Free download iBoysoft NTFS for Mac, install, and launch it on your Mac.
  • 2. Connect the read-only NTFS drive to your Mac.
  • 3. iBoysoft NTFS for Mac will automatically mount NTFS drive in read-write mode. Then you can write, copy, delete, and modify files on the NTFS drive smoothly.

Overall experience

Compared with other NTFS for Mac free software, iBoysoft NTFS for Mac tops the list. After free downloading this app and installing, it plugs and plays once NTFS drives are connected to your Mac.

Read Full Review

This small menu bar utility uses an intuitive interface, showing a list of detected NTFS volumes, a disk management tool, and some customizable options. iBoysoft NTFS for Mac makes it simple, fast, and efficient to write to NTFS drives on Mac.

With a 7-day free trial period, uses can copy and modify files on NTFS drives for free.

Additional features: iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is highlighted with simple disk management, including one-click to open volumes, clean NTFS volumes, repair NTFS file system corruption, unmount NTFS volumes, erase other disks to NTFS file system, etc.

Sum-up: User-friendly, plug-and-play, free trial version, and technical support make iBoysoft NTFS for Mac the best NTFS driver.

2. iBoysoft DiskGeeker

iBoysoft DiskGeeker is a handy Mac disk management tool, which not only enables NTFS read-write support on Mac, but also helps read/write BitLocker encrypted drive, manage external drives and network drives on Mac.

#7-day free trial#NTFS for Mac Monterey#BitLocker for Mac#Manage network drives#Manage external drives
  • Pros:
  • 7-day free trial
  • Support macOS from High Sierra to Monterey Beta
  • Compatible with Apple Silicon M1 Mac
  • Read/Write BitLocker encrypted drive on Mac
  • Map network drives
  • Free technical support

How to use iBoysoft DiskGeeker?

  • 1. Download, install and launch iBoysoft DiskGeeker on your Mac.
  • 2. All connected NTFS external drives will be automatically mounted in read-write mode.
  • 3. Copy-paste, transfer, modify, and write to NTFS drives.

Overall experience

iBoysoft DiskGeeker is handy tool for people whose NTFS external drives are read-only on Mac. With this software, mounting NTFS drives with write access lifts a disk insertion, simple and intuitive. It works with a wide range of storage types like USB flash drives, SD cards, and memory sticks.

Read Full Review

This NTFS for Mac app will stay in the menu bar silently until detecting newly plugged hard disks. From its drop-down box, you can open, mount, unmount, and disconnect all NTFS volumes with a simple click. Then, you'll have full access to NTFS disks as you use APFS and HFS+ on Mac.

Other Highlights: Besides being an NTFS driver, iBoysoft DiskGeeker also can manage and map network drives. It means your network volumes will be mounted as local drives so that you can access it directly in the Finder.

Sum-up: You can enjoy this NTFS for Mac software for free within 7 days, and then you'll know iBoysoft DiskGeeker can definitely satisfy your needs of an NTFS driver on Mac.

3. Mounty for NTFS

Mounty is a NTFS for Mac free software to make NTFS drive write support on your Mac.

#Freeware#NTFS for Mac Big Sur
  • Pros:
  • 100% Free
  • Compatible with Apple Silicon M1 Mac
  • Support macOS from Mavericks to Big Sur
  • Fast and free download for full version
  • Cons:
  • Rather slow write speed
  • Unstable and>Supported macOS Auto-mountTransfer SpeedPriceModern InterfaceOthers highlightsiBoysoft NTFS for MacmacOS 12 Beta - macOS 10.13YesFastFree trialYes1. Support M1 Mac
    2. Clean NTFS volumes
    3. Format to NTFS iBoysoft DiskGeekermacOS 12 Beta - macOS 10.13YesFastFree trialYesMap network drives in FinderMounty for MacmacOS 11 - OS X 10.9NoSlowFreeYesN/ANTFS-3GmacOS 10.10 - OS X 10.6NoSlowFreeNoN/AFUSE for macOSmacOS 10.15 - OS X 10.6YesSlowFreeNoN/ASL-NTFSmacOS 10.12 - OS X 10.6NoSlowFreeYesN/AParagon NTFS for MacmacOS 11 - 10.12YesFastFree trialYes1. Format to NTFS
    2. Support M1 Mac Tuxera NTFS for MacmacOS 11 - OS X 10.4YesRelatively slowFree trialYesCheck NTFS drives

Conclusion:

All NTFS for Mac free software has obvious flaws or shortcomings (like low write speed, poor compatibility, and no technical support). Some disadvantages can even put your data at risk. If you don't care about the risks and want to try out the free NTFS for Mac programs, generally speaking, Mounty for NTFS and FUSE for macOS are better free ones.

Most free NTFS drivers are for macOS Mojave edition, macOS High Sierra, and earlier, and few are compatible with the latest macOS Big Sur.

But you have a better choice, cost-effective NTFS for Mac alternatives like iBoysoft NTFS for Mac, so that you can get enough reliability, stability, compatibility, and simplicity from that app. Though they are not completely free, they can provide a lot of merits that NTFS for Mac free software doesn't do.

Why do you need free NTFS for Mac driver?

NTFS is a file system developed by Microsoft, the competitor of Apple. It's for Windows platform, especially used in the system drive. That's why you use Boot Camp to run Windows on Mac but find you can't mount BOOTCAMP partition in read-write mode.

Up to now, Mac operating systems, including macOS Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra and Mac OS X El Capitan, only provide NTFS read support but no NTFS write support.

Business is business, but for users, you need Mac to write to NTFS drives. Users want Windows NTFS file system to be fully compatible with macOS or Mac OS X. Sure. That it. You need NTFS for Mac free software to share NTFS drives between Windows and Mac.

People Also Ask

Q: Is NTFS for Mac free?

A: NTFS drivers generally cost $20 around, but there are four completely free NTFS for Mac software:

  1. 1. Mounty for NTFS
  2. 2. NTFS-3G
  3. 3. FUSE for macOS
  4. 4. SL-NTFS

Q: How can Mac read NTFS for free?

A: Mac can read NTFS drives for free by default. All you need to do is to mount the disk in Disk Utility by:

  1. 1. Connect the NTFS drive to your Mac for automatically mounting.
  2. 2. Open Disk Utility if the NTFS drive is not mounted.
  3. 3. Select the NTFS drive and click on Mount.
  4. 4. Mac reads the NTFS drive for free then.

Q: What is the best NTFS for Mac?

A: There are three best NTFS for Mac software:

  1. 1. iBoysoft NTFS for Mac
  2. 2. Paragon NTFS for Mac
  3. 3. Tuxera NTFS for Mac

Free Apps For Imac Computer

Q: I lost the data from NTFS drive, how to recover?

Best Free Apps For Mac

A: Free download the professional data recovery software: iBoysoft Data Recovery and have a try.