Textify - Text recognition (OCR) made easy and accurate #1 Product of the Day PH

[yellow8]

Textify​

I'm glad to introduce Textify. 🚀

Textify is a macOS app to recognize text on any image/PDF, and to export to PDF with the text integrated!
Text recognition (OCR) has never been so easy and so accurate.

Key features

• Save result as a PDF with the text integrated above the image such that it looks like a pure text PDF. The PDF is searchable and you can select & copy/paste in it
• Save as .txt
• Select multiple images at once or just Drag & Drop
• Scan with your iPhones and import automatically into Textify (Handoff/Continuity)
• Apply filters on the images (colors, grayscal, b&w)
• Adjust size and quality for smaller output file size
• Edit OCR results before exporting
• Instant output file size preview
• 8 languages supported (English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Chinese, ...)
• Everything happens on device, no server. Your data is safe and your privacy matters
• Developed exclusively for macOS and compatible with dark mode
• 
  Integrates with the new Siri Shortcuts in macOS Monterey (since v4)

Download

▶ Textify on the Mac App Store (free)

The app is entirely free. You can definitely stick with the free version and export for free as .txt or with a watermark on the PDF. The watermark is not added if you purchase the PRO version as a one-time in-app purchase. This will support my work as an indie developer and also bring you future free updates. Thank you for your support.

History

I am an indie developer and I previously created PDFZone and Zacc. Both are macOS apps that heavily use PDFs and read their contents. An OCR software was thus a logical new development.

Screenshot

I hope you enjoy the app. Thank you for reading this, testing the app, and supporting my work, you guys are awesome 👍.
Any comment is welcome! I'd love to update the app with your suggestions.

 

[yellow8]

Awesome news for Textify, it made #1 product of the day on PH!

 

[mj_]

Great OCR detection rate, congratulations!

One question though: is there a specific reason why you are converting PDFs with colors into b/w PDFs?
Also, have you considered integrating with Apple's built-in scan feature in order to not only convert text from existing images/PDFs but also scanning directly to PDF with OCR?

 

[yellow8]

Hi mj_, thank you for trying Textify!
You can choose to have the PDF with colors using the settings button. The B&W is just a filter for people needing it. I think I should make the colors settings the default one.

I wasn't sure if people would need the scan feature, but now that you mentioned it, I'll add it on my roadmap.
In the meantime, you might want to use my iOS scanner QuickScan which performs OCR directly and also generates a PDF with the text integrated.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Oooooh drag and drop works from Photos! OCR was perfect on several image I tried.

Maybe I'm missing something but I don't see how to get the Pro version? Went through all the options.

 

[yellow8]

Thank you for testing it!
You have to export as PDF, then you are offered to choose between free or PRO.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Thank you for testing it!
You have to export as PDF, then you are offered to choose between free or PRO.

Hah! Clearly I didn't test all the options! Very nice. Thank you. Purchased!

Very useful tool - thank you. Love devs that are active on Macrumors too.

Wish list for future: Ability to see previous images that I OCR'ed (a history). Less clicks during the save as process - set a default save as folder then have that be a 1 click option for Save to PDF and Save to Text. Lastly, the ability to edit the text preview window for quick fixes / formatting if desired.

Happy Sunday!

 

[yellow8]

Thank you for the functionalities ideas, I'll definitely look into that 👍 . And thanks for purchasing too!

 

[yellow8]

Oh and thanks for the review as well

 

[mj_]

In the meantime, you might want to use my iOS scanner QuickScan which performs OCR directly and also generates a PDF with the text integrated.

Thanks for the suggestion but I'm not a big fan of using my iPhone as scanner considering that I have an all-in-one in my office and regularly need to scan batches of documents two-sided

Been looking for a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat but so far failed to find one. Either the OCR detection engine is way off, or it produces ginormous PDF files, or it doesn't support two-sided scanning, or there's some other issue that prevents me from using it. Which is why I continue running an ancient version of Acrobat Professional 9.x under Windows XP in a VM. I have to admit that your software looks very promising. Your OCR rate is fantastic and the resulting files are small in size. Once you add two-sided scanning support I'm sold.

 

[notgonna]

"macOS version 10.15 or later is required" Bummer. I'm trying to stay on 10.14.6 until the end of the year.

edit
PS: How much is the Pro upgrade with the 70% discount applied?

 

[ignatius345]

I like this a lot. I just fed it a PDF I had made by scanning in some pages from a book and it did very nicely -- even though my scans were of middling quality.

The $5 for a pro license was a no-brainer, and I think it's worth more even when the discount ends.

 

[yellow8]

Thanks ignatius, always glad to know it works well!

 

[abdcef]

i couldn’t get the full text from a multi page pdf. Just first four lines. Has anyone else tried .txt?

 

[yellow8]

That sir, I'm very interested in! Could you MP me with your document such that I can run an analysis on it? I'd be glad to fix this potential bug!

 

[abdcef]

That sir, I'm very interested in! Could you MP me with your document such that I can run an analysis on it? I'd be glad to fix this potential bug!

It’s for most documents I try. They are 5-15 pages long and the text OCR just picks up a few lines (usually within just a single page of the document)

 

[yellow8]

Well this is the first time I hear about such case. I did not receive any message from you yet, but if you could send me an example of such documents, I could fix the issue for you. Without the document, and given that you are the only one with the issue, it is difficult for me to help you.

 

[yellow8]

Little friendly advice, don't be late to enjoy the 70% discount on the PRO version!

 

[yellow8]

I just released Textify 1.1

You can now paste images/PDFs directly in the app, to make the process even more efficient. This has been asked a lot, there it is 😊.

Here is the link to the store: Textify on the Mac App Store

 

[BigMcGuire]

Very nice ! Makes this even more useful. Thanks!

 

[jlc1978]

Gave it a try.

It seems to have issues with multi - columns text and documents with text in graphics. Conversion of such a document results in a mix of text from various columns as well as text from graphics interspersed in the document. Headers and footers cause confusion as well as the get dropped into the text.

In fairness, many OCR programs have the same issues and cost a lot more.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Yeah, agreed. I've given up on OCR because of how bad most of the apps are that try to use it (or they require a subscription that's way beyond what I want to pay for just OCR). This app solved that for me.

A PERFECT OCR app for me would be one where I can draw an overlay on an image and tell it: ONLY OCR this part of the screen --- then edit it afterwards if I want. Obviously this gets a lot more complicated with the more pages you throw, but it would be cool to say: On every page, only translate in this area (then draw the box) - to avoid page numbers, headers, etc.

That said, for what I'm using it for, this app is perfect. For the price? Wow. Yep. An active dev on Macrumors? Icing on the cake. Definitely going to be checking out the Devs other applications.

 

[yellow8]

Thank you guys for all the suggestions.
The "only OCR text in this area" feature has been asked to me several times. I'll definitely add it to my planning and see what I can do .
Editing as well, it is easy for txt exports, more work for PDF export. I'll also see what I can do .

 

[mj_]

I've just purchased the PRO version despite the fact that there are still some features missing (re: two-sided scanning would be my #1). Your work is incredible and deserves support.

I may have also found a bug when exporting a PDF in grayscale or b&w as overall quality is pretty poor compared to the same export in color.

Original pre-OCR PDF:

Exported in color with original image quality and size:

Exported in grayscale with original image quality and size:

Exported in black & white with original image quality and size:

For comparison, here's what Acrobat Professional 9.5 running in a Windows XP VM produced. Same scan resolution (300 dpi), black and white document, OCR performed (image, exact):

Acrobat wins hands down in file size btw: 25KB compared to 78KB (B&W), 220KB (Grayscale), and 512KB (Color). I have no idea how Adobe does it but they consistently come out ahead in every file size comparison I make.

 

[yellow8]

That is an incredible feedback! Thanks! Looking into it right now