NAPS2

This is useful for administration, letters, manuals and study papers. It fits a flatbed scanner or document input with a suitable driver. For large archives you also have to choose a name and folder format; OCR alone does not make an unordered collection easy to find.

Test one page first and choose the correct OCR language. Check recognition of amounts and names, especially in case of lowercase letters or a crooked scan.

You're scanning for a chosen storage location. Do not store personal data documents in an unintentional shared folder. In the case of a network shared scanner, you should also assess who can use that scanner. Check the final PDF before mailing her: a forgotten backside may contain additional information.

The operation of your scanner also depends on the driver. OCR can make errors and does not replace monitoring of important data.

WIA and TWAIN drivers can work differently with the same scanner. Test an alternative when input or double-sided scanning fails. OCR can misrecognize numbers, names and small text. Therefore, save the visible scan image and check important data before taking over recognized text.

NAPS2 is a targeted choice if you want to scan paper documents and save them as an ordered PDF. You can rotate, crop and move pages and add text recognition. This is especially useful for a retrievable archive. The scan itself remains the base: crooked, outsharp or cut text is not reliably solved by only turning on OCR.

NAPS2 fits well with recurring multi-page administration, provided your scanner and driver work appropriately. Check a scan with the paper size and input method you really use. OCR makes text searchable, but the image must remain readable. For double-sided documents, a correct front and back order is more important than just a quickly rounded scan.