Is Document Imaging different than document scanning?

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In most cases, the act of scanning a document to save it in a digital format is considered to be

document imaging

. Another name for it is,

digital archiving.

However, Microsoft Office has a “Document Imaging Tool” which helps users to view scanned documents and manipulate them in certain ways. It calls this,

Microsoft Office Document Imaging.

Microsoft Office also offers Document Scanning, which is digital imaging in the traditional sense of the word. MS Office Document Scanning works through the use of an installed scanner, interfaced with this software.

According to the Microsoft Office Document Imaging help file, it is possible to,

view scanned documents on the screen, rearrange multi-page documents, select and manipulate recognized text, annotate scanned documents and online faxes, and send documents to others by e-mail or fax.

There is even an option to “Recognize Text Using OCR.” OCR is Optical Character Recognition and it allows the user to scan a document or view a fax then make that document or fax editable using OCR technology. It reads an image, converting it to text by recognized programmed type styles and fonts.

For many businesses this added feature is underused. However, newspapers, law offices and many archives use OCR technology to assist in converting images of documents into readable, searchable text, thus making the information in those documents available in a faster, more usable format than the original.

Next Page: What is the difference in Document Imaging and records management?

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• What is Document Imaging?
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• Is Document Imaging different than document scanning?
• What is the difference in Document Imaging and records management?