Understanding OCR File Formats - HOCR vs ALTO vs PDF/A Explained
Last Updated: 05 Jan, 2026
If you’ve ever scanned a document and wondered how computers transform images of text into searchable, editable content, you’ve encountered the world of Optical Character Recognition (OCR). But the story doesn’t end with simply extracting text from images. The real magic happens in how that information gets stored and structured.
When you digitize historical archives, process business invoices, or convert printed books into digital libraries, choosing the right OCR output format becomes critical.