Readiris
Readiris is powerful optical character recognition (OCR) software for macOS that converts scanned documents, PDFs, and images into searchable, editable text. It supports dozens of languages and handles complex layouts including multiple columns, graphics and mixed content. The app is popular with professionals who process large volumes of paper documents, students digitising textbooks, researchers archiving publications, and anyone needing to extract text from photographs or scans. Readiris integrates with scanners and can batch-process multiple files.
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1 suggestionReadiris is actively maintained OCR software, but there is no confirmed native Apple Silicon build available yet. The app continues to run under Rosetta 2 today, but Apple is removing Rosetta in macOS 28 (September 2028), giving you roughly two years to plan. Contact IRIS (the vendor) directly to ask whether a native Apple Silicon build is in development and when you can expect it. Monitor their website and release notes for updates — many OCR tools have added native Apple Silicon support in the past year or two, so there is a reasonable chance Readiris will follow. In the meantime, if you depend on OCR functionality and want a native alternative you can use today, consider Prizmo, TextSoap, or Adobe Acrobat Pro (all ship native Apple Silicon builds) — though none may offer the exact same feature set as Readiris.
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