Although Optical Character Recognition (OCR) scanning technology has increased rapidly over the years, there are, however, limitations in regards to the source materials and character formatting.

• Text from a source with a font size of less than 12 points will results in more errors.
• Most document formatting is lost during text scanning, except for paragraph marks and tab stops. Sometimes bold, italics and underline are recognised, depending on your software.
• The output from a finished text scan will be a single column editable computer file. This computer file will always require spellchecking and proofreading as well as reformatting to desired final layout.
• Scanning of plain text files or spreadsheet print outs usually work, however the data needs to be reformatted to match the original.
• Source materials that often cause issues are:
  • Forms
  • Small text
  • Blurry copies
  • Mathematical formulas
  • Draft copies
  • Colored paper
  • Handwritten text
  • Unusual or script-type fonts
  • Document formatting may be lost during text scanning (i.e, bold, otalic & underline are not always recognized).
  • Output from a finished text scan may be a single column editable text file. Text file will always require spellchecking and proofreading as well as reformatting to desired final layout

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