Convert your scanned documents to text files with free Google Drive OCR

Google Drive offers a free Optical Character Recognition service. If you have scanned documents that you've always wanted to convert into searchable text files, try this.

Here is what Google says in its help page:

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) lets you convert images with text into text documents using automated computer algorithms. Images can be processed individually (.jpg, .png, and .gif files) or in multi-page PDF documents (.pdf). These are some of the types of files suitable for OCR:

• Image or PDF files obtained using flatbed scanners
• Photos taken with digital cameras or mobile phones

To access this service, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to Google Drive.
2. Upload your scanned image or PDF.
3. When the file is done uploading, right-click on its icon and choose Open with... > Google Docs.
4. Wait a few seconds (longer, if you have a bigger document) as Google Drive processes the file. Your document will open in Google Docs with the converted text inside.

Note: There are limits, so please read the Google Drive OCS help page.