Google Chrome may soon add a new feature that will make it simpler to read image content in PDF files.
The new feature, which is currently in testing, adds OCR capability to PDF files, allowing you to convert text that appears in images in documents to text that can be used for different purposes.
In the case of Chrome, this feature can be used to allow text to be read aloud, which can help improve the accessibility of content on the web. According to Google, the functionality is currently in testing, but is expected to be integrated into the browser over the next few months.
With it, users could activate the text recognition system for PDF documents, which would then allow converting that content to voice. In this way, visually impaired users could have a new way of quickly obtaining information about content that – otherwise – would be inaccessible.
The company's focus with this feature would be, above all, for use in a school environment, but as it will be integrated into Chrome, theoretically it can be used by any browser user.
For now, there are no details of when it will become available, except that it is under development and should reach users “in the coming months”.
