---
title: What is optical character recognition (OCR)?
description: "What is optical character recognition (OCR)? eBrief Ready deploys Optical Character Recognition (OCR) — a form of AI technology that allows a computer to recognise and convert different types of text from images, scanned documents or PDFs into machine-readable text.…"
url: "https://ebriefready.legalready.ai/knowledge/what-does-ocr-mean/"
updated: "2026-08-13"
category: AI Matter Intelligence
---

# What is optical character recognition (OCR)?

What is optical character recognition (OCR)?

eBrief Ready deploys Optical Character Recognition (OCR) — a form of AI technology that allows a computer to recognise and convert different types of text from images, scanned documents or PDFs into machine-readable text. This includes both handwritten and printed text.

In the legal profession, the primary use of OCR is to enhance scans of documents so they are searchable.

## **How it works**

1. **Image capture** — a document or image is scanned or photographed
2. **Preprocessing** — the image is cleaned up, with adjustments made for contrast, rotation and noise removal to make the text clearer
3. **Character recognition** — the OCR software analyses the shapes of characters in the image and matches them to predefined fonts or patterns, effectively reading the text
4. **Post-processing** — the software corrects errors and outputs the text into a usable format

For further information or assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out to our dedicated Support Team via [support@legalready.ai](mailto:support@legalready.ai) or +61 3 9020 4456.

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