TopOCR

TopOCR is an application suite that supports Optical Character Recognition (OCR), as the name suggests, and contains two tools for viewing and editing image and text files. It addresses users of any skill level, thanks to the friendly environment it provides.

The interface of the program is based on two windows where you can work with pictures and text files, respectively. Opening new items can be done by using only the file browser, since "drag and drop" are not supported.

As far as image formats go, TopOCR offers support for BMP, GIF, JPG, PCX and TIF, to name but a few. It only recognizes the TXT and RTF extensions in case of text files.

It is possible to capture an image from the webcam, enable automatic OCR mode and configure accessibility options (e.g. delete the image after OCR).

TopOCR allows you to make several image adjustments when it comes to colors, rotation, brightness, contrast, inversion, scaling, smoothness and EXIF information, among others. The tool does not show modifications in real-time mode, but it creates secondary windows with the results, so you can compare the "before" and "after" pictures.

Concerning text files, you can set the page layout (margins, header, and footer distance), enable page mode and fitted viewing mode, change the font, check the spelling with the click of a button, search and replace words, as well as use the Microsoft Anna voice to create speech from text. Evidently, both images and text files can be saved to file or printed.

TopOCR requires a low-to-moderate amount of CPU and system memory and has a good response time. However, the program crashed several times out of the blue during our evaluation. Other than this stability issue, TopOCR's features should meet the requirements of all users, regardless of their skill level.