Abbyy FineReader PDF review | Macworld

Price When Reviewed

$69 a year, $11.99 a month (from Mac App Store)

Best Prices Today: ABBYY FineReader Pro

Many workplaces and educational institutions have completely switched from paper documents to digital ones. Consequently, Mac users are increasingly dealing with PDFs and other e-document file formats. Abbyy’s FineReader PDF is one of the popular options you may come across when hunting for apps that can handle these documents. While the app is generally reliable for optical character recognition (OCR) and file format conversion, it misses out on the PDF editing tools that most users would expect from a premium solution.

Price and availability

Abbyy offers FineReader PDF on both macOS and Windows. While the Windows edition is a full-fledged PDF editor with support for more powerful features, the macOS variant mostly revolves around OCR and file conversion.

If you download FineReader PDF from Abbyy’s website, you’ll be limited to the $69/£59 a year plan. On the other hand, grabbing FineReader PDF from the Mac App Store offers an $11.99/£11.99 a month option (along with the annual one), which is better suited to those with short-term OCR needs, because you can just cancel after a month. (Incidentally, the yearly plan on the Mac App Store is £69.99 in the UK, so more than if you purchase from Abbyy).

Beyond the aforementioned billing systems, both the web and Mac App Store versions offer 7-day free trials and are virtually identical in terms of feature sets.

First impressions

Abbyy’s FineReader PDF offers a simple user interface, featuring three main tabs. The first is for viewing PDF documents, while the second and third offer quick and advanced file conversion tools respectively.

To import a document to FineReader PDF, you can either browse the Finder, use the Continuity Camera for an iPhone scan, or scan a real-life document using a connected scanner.

The app has been optimized to run smoothly on the latest version of macOS, and its modern design complements that of the operating system. In terms of performance and general user experience, FineReader PDF doesn’t disappoint; the limited functionality is a different story, however.

FineReader PDF features

FineReader PDF supports viewing and highlighting PDF files. You get to pick between different, preset highlight colors and add comments if needed. As a result, you certainly shouldn’t pay for this app if you’re seeking PDF annotation tools. The built-in Apple Preview app caters to more use cases and is available for free.

OCR is where FineReader PDF shines. As mentioned above, you can import a document using your preferred method. This could be another PDF file that you’re looking to scan and optimize or an image of a paper document you’ve taken. Keep in mind, though, that the app seemingly doesn’t support Apple’s HEIC image format, so you may need to convert your HEIC iPhone shots to JPG first.

The quick conversion feature processes the file you’ve inputted to detect its content. Once it analyzes the text and images, you get to pick the output’s format. The supported file formats include PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, EPUB, FB2, a wide range of image types, TXT, HTML, RTF, ODT, and CSV.

Each of the formats above also offers its own set of customizations. So, you get to choose the ebook’s title and author when converting to EPUB, for example. As for PDF, you can pick the layout, whether the output should exclude detected images, the page size, and much more.

Once you select the output’s specifics, FineReader PDF will export the document. The fresh file should now be more editable, as FineReader PDF’s OCR technology optimizes photographed text and digitalizes it. Beyond this point, however, Abbyy’s app is of no use.

While the advanced conversion mode lets you review and fine-tune the OCR’s results before it outputs a new file, FineReader PDF doesn’t let you edit the actual content. So, you could help it detect text fields and images and alter its misconceptions, but it’s doesn’t support proper PDF editing.

Should you buy Abbyy FineReader PDF

While FineReader PDF undoubtedly offers reliable OCR and file conversion functionalities, it falls short when it comes to proper PDF editing. So, it can’t be the sole PDF solution you use for scanning and manipulating these files. And given that it doesn’t offer a one-time purchase option and its relatively high recurring fees, it’s hard to justify paying for it.

After all, many similarly priced PDF editing apps offer OCR as an added perk. Through these alternatives, you get to access more advanced features while paying the same fee. While the OCR functionality of these apps may not be as well-developed as that of FineReader PDF, it should work fine for casual document scans.

Ultimately, FineReader PDF stands out as an optical character recognition software and file converter. If you’re dealing with a ton of physical documents that need digitalizing, then it’ll likely be a perfect match. Otherwise, if you’re seeking an all-in-one PDF solution, then Abbyy’s app is not it.

While FineReader PDF undoubtedly offers reliable OCR and file conversion functionalities, it falls short when it comes to proper PDF editing. If you’re dealing with a ton of physical documents that need digitalizing, then it’ll likely be a perfect match. If you’re seeking an all-in-one PDF solution, look elsewhere.