Extract text from FineReader dictionaries (AME)
To convert AME dictionaries to another format, you need ABBYY FineReader or other Settings software.
To convert other file formats to the "Custom OCR Dictionary" file type, you need software like ABBYY FineReader or a similar tool.
An .ame file is a custom user dictionary created by ABBYY FineReader, a leading optical character recognition (OCR) and PDF management application. These files store specialized vocabulary, technical jargon, names, or industry-specific terms (like medical or legal words) that are not present in standard dictionaries. Adding these terms significantly improves the software's OCR accuracy when scanning physical documents.
Locally, .ame files are typically found in the Windows AppData directory under the ABBYY folder, specifically for FineReader 12 and earlier, though they can still be imported into newer versions. Users need to convert these files when they migrate to another OCR system, want to run spell-checks in different software like Microsoft Word, or simply need to back up their meticulously curated list of domain terms. The major disadvantage of the .ame format is that it is proprietary and closed-source. You cannot natively read the file in standard text editors or web browsers, effectively locking your data into the ABBYY ecosystem. If your software subscription lapses, you risk losing access to the dictionary you built.
The best conversion targets for a dictionary file are open text formats like TXT, CSV, or XML. Converting to these formats preserves the plain text words, allowing easy migration to other tools, though internal ABBYY-specific morphological rules or weighting flags might be lost.
Because .ame files use a highly specific binary encoding designed solely for the ABBYY OCR engine, standard online converters fail to read them. Often, only the original software can properly read or export the data. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or extracting your custom word list may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your AME file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted UNQ, HK5 and GLY files.
If you want to convert AME file to , you can use ABBYY FineReader or similar software from the "OCR Custom Dictionary Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert files to AME, try ABBYY FineReader or another comparable tool in the "OCR Custom Dictionary Storage" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our AME converter.