Term: OCR (OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION)
OCR software will recognize and translate bit-mapped images of printed data into machine readable (ASCII, EBCDIC or formatted) text. Refers to the process by which scanned images are electronically "read" to convert them into editable text. This conversion is performed after scanning, and may output formatted text or text-only files (flat ASCII files). Text generated by OCR is often input into text search databases, allowing retrieval of the original scanned image based on its content.
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