You’ve got a huge stack of old paper files and reports to digitize. But when you scan those puppies, the words and numbers come out blurry, smudged, and impossible to extract cleanly. No worries, friend! We’ll show you some steps or alternatively how to use AlgoDocs for pulling text and tables from even the crummiest of scans. In just a few easy steps, you can wrangle readable data from those pixelated PDFs. Whether you’re liberating info from fax prints, copies of copies, or scans your office intern Frank made by balancing his phone over the copier, relief is on the way. Read on to save that precious data from its grainy graphic prison!
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Table of Contents
The Challenges of Extracting Data from Low-Quality Scans
Extracting text and tables from scanned files can be tricky, especially if the scans are low quality. These files often suffer from issues like:
- Low resolution – If a document was scanned at a low DPI, the text may be blurry or illegible. Traditional OCR tools have a hard time recognizing blurry text.
- Skewed text – The text in the scan may not be straight, making it difficult for OCR software to properly read the words.
- Low contrast – Poor contrast between the text and background can obscure the actual letters, so the software struggles to discern the text.
- Creases and folds – Physical damage to the original document often shows through in scans, obscuring parts of the text. Traditional OCR has trouble compensating for obscured or missing sections of text.
- Complex layouts – Documents with complex layouts, like newsletters with text in columns, various font sizes, and text over images, are challenging for software to interpret accurately.
To overcome these issues, you may need to manually correct and improve parts of the scan before extracting data. Some tips:
- Increase the scan resolution and re-scan the document for better clarity.
- Use image editing software to straighten skewed text, increase contrast, and remove creases/folds.
- For complex layouts, you may need to identify different sections in the scan and process them separately before combining the data.
- Proofread and correct the extracted data, as OCR software is prone to make some errors on low-quality scans. Double-check numbers, proper names, and domain-specific terms.
With some manual intervention, you can get usable data from even poor-quality scans. It just takes patience and a willingness to correct the software’s mistakes. Stay determined – you’ve got this! Low-quality scans don’t have to mean low-quality data.
Optical Character Recognition Technology to the Rescue
If you’ve ever tried to extract data from low-quality scanned files, you know how frustrating it can be. The text is often skewed, blurred, or partially obscured. Tables and forms are misaligned or interrupted by stains, folds, or tears in the original document. Don’t despair! AI-based Optical character recognition (OCR) technology integrated into AlgoDocs has come a long way in recent years and can help recover text and tables even from poor-quality scans.
AlgoDocs uses sophisticated algorithms to detect text in scanned files and convert images of text into machine-encoded text that can be searched, indexed, and edited. The latest AlgoDocs’ OCR engines are powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, so they continue to get smarter over time. In summary, AlgoDocs applies advanced OCR and pattern recognition to identify text, tables, signatures, and more in scanned PDFs, JPEGs, and other image files.
With the help of AI-powered OCR, you can now extract valuable data from even the most challenging scanned files. While not perfect, OCR provides an automated solution that can save countless hours of manual data entry and unlock insights that would otherwise remain trapped on paper. The future is here, and it’s getting smarter every day!
Powerful AI Models
AlgoDocs’ data extraction is powered by cutting-edge AI models like convolutional neural networks (CNN). These models have learned to identify text, handwriting, and tables by analyzing huge datasets of scanned files. They can detect subtle patterns that would easily confuse traditional OCR software.
The AI has also learned from context, so it can make educated guesses when parts of the scan are unclear. This allows for much more accurate extraction overall, especially for lower-quality files.
Continuous Improvement Through Active Learning
AlgoDocs’ AI models are constantly learning and improving through a process known as active learning. When the AI encounters an unusual scan or struggles with part of an extraction, it flags the file for human review. People then provide feedback to further train the AI and the improved models are deployed to benefit all users.
Over time, this active learning loop results in AI that is highly customized for extracting data from real-world scanned documents. The models get smarter and more capable with every file they process.
Flexible, Customizable Extractors
AlgoDocs gives you full control over the data extraction process. You can easily configure the AI to detect specific types of content like addresses, dates, or product codes. Custom rules can also be applied to standardize or validate extracted data.
The platform offers an intuitive interface for reviewing, editing, and exporting your extracted data. You get full visibility into the AI’s predictions so you can make any necessary corrections or adjustments before exporting clean, structured data ready for your business systems and workflows.
With advanced AI and a focus on active learning, AlgoDocs is pushing the boundaries of data extraction and helping organizations unlock value from their scanned document archives. Difficult, messy files that were once impossible to extract accurately are now handled with ease.
How AlgoDocs Extracts Text and Tables from Any Scan
AlgoDocs uses advanced optical character recognition (OCR) and natural language processing (NLP) technologies to extract text and tables from even the messiest scans. Its algorithms are designed to handle low image quality, skewed angles, curled pages, faded text, and more – extracting data accurately and efficiently.
Structuring and Formatting the Extracted Data
The raw OCR output is unstructured. AlgoDocs organizes this into coherent tables with proper spacing and formatting. It can distinguish between text in paragraphs, headings, lists, and tables to properly structure everything. Column spans, row spans, and other table features are also available.
Outputting Clean Data
The end result is clean text, and tables in a variety of formats like Excel, JSON, and XML. You get the scan’s content in a structured digital format, ready to be searched, analyzed, and used in other applications.
With AlgoDocs, you can unlock the data trapped in your scanned files and put it to better use. Even the messiest scans are no match for its advanced OCR and NLP technologies. Your data is extracted accurately and efficiently, despite imperfect image quality or formatting. Don’t despair over your low-quality scans – let AlgoDocs set the content free!
Conclusion
So don’t lose hope when you’re stuck with a low-quality scan. Arm yourself with one of these text extraction tools, roll up your sleeves, and start mining that document for all it’s worth. It may take some trial and error to find what works best for your situation, but with a little grit and ingenuity, you can resurrect those scanned pages. And who knows – you might even end up with something better than the original. The point is, you won’t know until you try. So, grab a coffee, and start extracting. That nugget you uncover could change everything.
