Best way to convert PDF image to Excel document.

When you get a scanned image-based PDF, it is not easy to convert PDF image to Excel/Word with common PDF converters; you need the one with OCR (Optical Character Recognition) function.

Now some online services adopt OCR technology for users to convert PDF to txt online.

1. Google Docs. Whenever you upload scanned PDF or image containing printed text (like a fax document or a scanned newspaper clipping) to your Google Docs, it will inform you to perform the OCR feature to open the file in Google Doc. If you tick the option, Google Docs will extract text from the scanned file and display it in Google doc format that you can copy and search. The shortage is that the converted file may lose the original format and layout.

2. OCRTerminal. OCRTerminal is part of the top-rated PDF converter - ABBYY FineReader. To use the OCR online service, you have to register and then log in, but only can free convert PDF within 20 pages in every month.

If you want to convert PDF to txt with full and powerful features, refer to below famous and reliable PDF OCR converter software.

1. ABBYY FineReader Professional

Price: $169.99

ABBYY FineReader® OCR software turns scans, PDFs and digital photographs into editable, searchable files. The accurate character recognition virtually eliminates re-typing or re-formatting of files in any combination of 189 languages. Smart, simple interface guides you through the converting process at one click. Plus, advanced image editing enhancements deliver even better OCR for images captured with a digital camera.

2. PDF Converter Pro 

Price: $79.95

PDF Converter Pro is one of the most famous OCR desktop apps to extract text from scanned PDF files. The built-in OCR feature will recognize the PDF text accurately. It allows users to convert any scanned PDF files to editable Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Text, Image, HTML, EPUB, with the original PDF layout and formatting greatly preserved.

If you like to convertPDF image to Excel, after importing PDF and selecting the output format as excel, click the Option button. Choose one from below three options to customize the output format of Excel spreadsheets, and then you can convert PDF to Excel.

Retain value without formatting - is the default option. It saves all the original text, numbers to Excel cells, without preserving the original formatting.
Retain original formatting of forms - allows you to preserve text, numbers and formatting in the original PDF file. But it is not suitable for some un-regular PDF tables, as there might be some positioning error that may affect the usual calculation after conversion.

Combine all pages into a single Excel sheet - allows you to export PDF files in a single Excel page.

In addition to converting PDF to other formats, PDF Converter Pro also allows users to save almost any file as PDF document, and protect PDF with Passwords and Permissions.

Though the output formats and functions of PDF Converter Pro are less than ABBYY FineReader, for a home user, it is powerful enough, and more importantly, it is quite cheaper to be your best choice of PDF OCR converters.