About OCR
OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is a technology that recognizes text in images and converts it into editable text. You can quickly digitize book quotes, handwritten notes, and more without manual typing.
Supported Languages
Reading Forest's OCR feature supports the following languages:
- Japanese - Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana
- English - Alphabet and numbers
The OCR feature uses Tesseract.js (an open-source OCR engine). Language data (approximately 15MB) is downloaded in the background on first use.
How to Use OCR
-
Open the OCR Modal
Select [Edit]→[Insert]→[OCR] from the menu, or click the OCR button in the toolbar -
Select an Image
Provide an image using one of these methods:- Click to select a file
- Drag and drop an image
- Paste from clipboard with
-
Extract Text
Click the "Extract Text" button. A progress bar shows the processing status -
Review and Edit
The extracted text is displayed. Edit as needed -
Insert into Notes
Click "Insert Text" to add the text at your cursor position in the notes
Supported Image Formats
The following image formats are supported:
- JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg)
- PNG (.png)
- GIF (.gif)
- WebP (.webp)
- BMP (.bmp)
Tips for Better Recognition
Clear, Well-lit Images
Use images with good lighting where text is clearly visible
Proper Resolution
Text should be large enough to read clearly in the image
Horizontal Text
Text aligned horizontally yields better recognition results
High Contrast
Higher contrast between text and background improves accuracy
- Handwritten text (cursive, stylized writing)
- Decorative or artistic fonts
- Blurry images or text at an angle
- Similar colors for text and background
Use Cases
Book Quotes
Photograph a book page and extract the text you want to quote. Faster and more accurate than manual typing.
Whiteboards & Blackboards
Capture classroom or meeting notes as searchable, editable text.
Business Cards & Documents
Digitize paper documents and store them in your reading notes for easy organization.
FAQ
Q: Why does it take time on first use?
The first use requires downloading language data (approximately 15MB for Japanese + English). This may take a few seconds to a minute. Subsequent uses will be much faster.
Q: Does it work offline?
Yes, once the language data is downloaded, OCR works offline.
Q: The recognition result is incorrect
OCR is not perfect. Always review the extracted text and make manual corrections as needed. See the tips above to improve accuracy.
Q: Can I use it on my smartphone?
Yes, OCR works in smartphone browsers. You can directly use photos taken with your camera.