Is there any technique to convert a image in to real text which is copyable

Question

I have scanned a page of a book and saved it as a picture. How do I convert that image into real text? Is there any technique for that? Any help will be highly appreciated.

Answer 1

The technique is called OCR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_character_recognition

A google for PHP OCR gives you a few results.

Answer 2

The technique is called optical character recognition (OCR). I don't like to simply suggest a search, but that's probably your best bet here.

Answer 3

Just as @JesperPalm replied the technique is called OCR, and regarding implementing it I suggest reading @nategood's reply in http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2170271/how-can-i-implement-ocr-on-a-website-using-php/2170419#2170419 regarding Google's ocropus, which seems to be the most sensible option.