There is an important distinction between document scanning and document imaging. The distinct is the reason you get different results when you search for “scan and save” vs. “scan and OCR”.

Be it to store or to use, remember you are going through all this hassle of paperwork for “information“. Know how you use your information, and technology will follow suit.

You have been dealing with papers all your life, in one form or the other. You are working with them, using them, and sharing them all the time. Questioning them, though, is a process you never really engage in until asked for.

So when you have an audit, and they ask questions, you fumble.

When there is a stack of unpaid bills on both sides, you fumble.

Every single time there is a question that needs a precise answer, you fumble.

Because the answer, or the information as we call it in the business world, is inside the documents.

Information-as-thing, is famously used by everyone. And is usually called Documents. This thing: you use either in the form of paper (hardcopy) or files(softcopy), to well… work with information.

So can anything be a document? Well, with time and research documents have a certain set of defining characteristics with which they are recognized as documents.

If you have figured out that your papers/documents are important. You have found the next step in the problem of information. Storage. You see, once you know the importance of information, you start collecting it. Here is the problem, it takes space. Working documents take space on your desk, drawers, and shelves; whereas archived/non-working-but-important-documents take space in cabinets and storage rooms.

Space, becomes a problem in both senses. Dead space because you cannot actively use it, and unplanned storage makes accessing required documents, a task. A task you wish someone else could do for you.

But, you are smart! You knew this could become a problem, so you manage by implementing a systematic organization of documents. You know what is where, now it’s just a matter time, effort and reason to find the files (when the problem/need arrives). But, again, when the problems arrives you are stuck with a vortex of decisions and deadlines. You will pass through it alright, hopefully without a penalty.

Smart as you are, you decide to use technology to your advantage. You cannot go back in time, and start making digital documents, now can you? Make all the right decisions from scratch. So you are going to do next best thing. Scan and Save. But here’s the catch—digital files alone aren’t enough to make your work easier. This is where I want you to pause and think about why it should be Scan, OCR and Save.

Because if you are going to make a technological jump, might as well take a leap.

Story of first digital conversion is fascinating. Building bridges takes time and skill and a little something we still not as sure of. Computing was in its infancy in the late 1950s, and scientists were working on groundbreaking idea of turning a physical image into a digital one.

Around mid-20th century, scientists and engineers were exploring ways to feed images and graphical data into early computers. With limited numerical processing and text as the only way to input, there was no efficient way to digitize images.

Russell A. Kirsch, was a part of the team developing SEAC (Standards Eastern Automatic Computer), one of the earliest stored-program computers(a computer that stores instructions in its memory to enable it to perform a variety of tasks in sequence or intermittently). A computer scientist by profession, working at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (now known as NIST). The team needed a way to input and analyze visual data, leading Kirsch to invent the first digital scanner in 1957.

The first scanner, referred to as a drum scanner, was a rudimentary yet ingenious device. It used a rotating drum to hold the image while a photomultiplier tube detected variations in light intensity.

It’s working process was like:

Dawn of digital imaging started with a photograph of Kirsch’s infant son, Walden, measuring just 5 cm x 5 cm and scanned at a resolution of 176 x 176 pixels.

Text on paper is static. It is locked in an unchangeable form. Creating a way to interact with it, be it editing, searching or converting it into audio seemed impossible. Even when digitized, your interactive abilities were limited to what you could do when it was in it’s paper form.

Blind individuals relied on others to read printed text aloud, limiting their independence. So when National Federation of the Blind, brought this problem to Ray Kurzweil, a scientist in pattern recognition and artificial intelligence, a world to accessibility started opening up.

The solution required several innovations: a scanner to digitize printed text, a system to recognize and interpret various fonts, and a text-to-speech engine to vocalize the output. At the time, OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology existed, but it was rudimentary—capable only of reading fixed fonts or highly controlled text layouts. Kurzweil in early 1970s started working on something far more flexible and powerful.

In 1974, after years of research and development, the Kurzweil Reading Machine was born. It was a bulky device the size of a large refrigerator, but it worked. A user could place a printed page into the machine, and it would scan the text, recognize the characters regardless of font or style, and convert it into editable, digital text. Then, using a text-to-speech system, it could read the text aloud.

The first public demonstration was nothing short of astonishing. In a crowded room filled with researchers, advocates for the blind, and reporters, Kurzweil placed a book into the machine. A soft mechanical whir filled the air as the scanner digitized the page. Seconds later, the machine spoke in a robotic but clear voice, reading the words printed on the page.

This was the moment where a static, inaccessible medium turned into something dynamic and transformative. It was paving the way for a digital future.

Wonderful as it is, the technology is just one part of it. The other part of the Scan and OCR story, is about human effort. Just like the blind required a machine for independence of listening to, what they wanted to read; especially without any human aid. There is a growing demand in the world of business to reduce human effort.

Reading is not as much effort, as finding something specific while reading is. Researchers have formed a cognitive model explaining why reading documents and extracting precise information is often a challenging task:

This multi-step process is time-consuming and mentally taxing, especially when dealing with large volumes of documents. Studies on document cognition and retrieval highlight how challenging it is to recall specifics without effective tools.