Looking for online summarizers? Check the best free summarizing tools that can provide a variety of different benefits to your writing work.
Summarization is an important skill. It helps people by letting them learn the gist of the matter in a short amount of time. In the modern era where people’s attention is divided between many distractions, taking the time to read long articles and essays is very inconvenient.
With summaries, however, those long articles can be shortened to a mere paragraph containing the main points and arguments which can be perused in a few seconds. Often times this can result in sparking enough interest that the reader takes the time to view the entire piece instead of just the summary.
What are Summarizing tools?
Manually summarizing an article is not very feasible, it requires that a good writer takes the time to read and understand an entire article and then summarize it. This entails that they have to identify all the key points and decide which things they can leave out. This is where summarizing tools come in.
These tools can summarize text automatically in a short amount of time. There are different types of tools available and they use different techniques to summarize the text. But broadly speaking there are two main types of tools:
- Extractive summarizing tools
- Abstractive summarizing tools
What is Extractive Summarization?
Extractive summarization is a summarizing technique in which the final output is composed of sentences picked from the article verbatim.
These sentences are the ones containing the most important points and arguments in the article/essay/paper. They are plucked from the source and then put together in a coherent way so that the summary makes sense.
Most online summarizers use the extractive summarization technique.
What is Abstractive Summarization?
Abstractive summarization is a technique in which the summary is written by rewriting the key points from the source document.
In the simplest of terms, it can be described as a paraphrased version of an extractive summary. Abstractive summaries are usually better than extractive ones because they have more freedom when it comes to writing.
Abstractive summaries allow the writer to use their own words and expressions to state the points and arguments. This usually results in a much better-articulated summary.
Not a lot of online tools use abstractive summarization.
How do Online Summarizing Tools Generate a Valid Summary?
Online summarizing tools work in different ways, but there are some steps that most of them have in common. Such steps are listed below.
- Identify Key Points
In summarizing, the first step is always to identify key points. When doing this manually, it requires several read-throughs to identify the key points. However, summarizing tools have different methods.
They basically go through the text and see what words are used multiple times, then they assign a value to each word according to the context. These “repetitive” words are mostly keywords that are crucial for explaining the topic.
Online tools that deal with text, usually employ NLP (Natural Language Processing) and artificial intelligence (AI) in some capacity. With NLP a summarizer can identify better keywords and points by looking at the context.
In layman’s terms, AI is used to learn about the context because the software can be trained to recognize patterns. When a lot of articles are fed to the software for training, it can recognize that certain words are used more when discussing certain concepts.
Text summarizers use this to identify key points by seeing which sentences are discussing a concept and using the related keywords as well.
- Assigns Values to Keywords and Compares Them
Since summarization means that the length of the content should be reduced, however, it is entirely possible that too many key points are identified in one text. So how does an online tool deal with that?
The usual method is to assign each key point a value. There are different parameters for assigning that value. Some simple summarizers assign a higher value to the points that use the greatest number of keywords.
Other, more sophisticated summary tools look at which points fit the context better and assign a higher value to them.
In the end, the points with the highest value are included in the summary while the lower ranking points are ignored.
Some tools let the user choose how long or short the summary can be. If they choose the shortest length then only the highest-ranking points are shown. As the length increases then subsequently slightly lower ranking points are also included.
- If Utilizing an Abstractive Summarizer
If the tool being used provides an abstractive summary, then after identifying the key points, there are a few more steps left.
We already know that in abstractive summaries the text is rewritten and uses different words and phrases, but the meaning is the same as the original.
A summary generator that utilizes abstractive summarization basically uses NLP to find suitable synonyms to replace the original text. To make considerably large changes the tool also changes the sentence structure.
This is akin to paraphrasing the text, the only difference is that the text is also being shortened by a large amount because it is a summary. In standard paraphrasing, the length of the text does not vary too much, the input and output are roughly the same lengths.
People can actually make abstractive summaries even if they cannot find a summarizer that does so. They simply have to run the output of a standard summarizer through a paraphraser and voila! An abstractive summary is ready.
- If Utilizing an Extractive Summarizer
Extractive summarizers are the most commonly found summary generators. These tools are relatively simpler compared to abstractive summarizers. They do not require any rewriting or rephrasing.
Once these tools have identified all the key points, they check their assigned values. Since some tools have the option of choosing the length of the summary, they check how many sentences will they need for the summary.
If the number of highest value key points is enough to satisfy the length, then these tools will simply use them. But if the number is not enough then the tools will also include sentences with the second highest value to make up for the shortage.
Finally, the sentences are then arranged to make a proper cohesive paragraph that makes sense to its readers. Typically, the tools only follow the order in which the sentences were discussed in the original document and that usually works out.
List of Top Suggested Free Text Summarizers Tools Online
Now, we will explore a few summarizing tools that are available on the internet and can provide a variety of different benefits to your daily writing tasks. These tools have been talked about before, so they are worth mentioning and using if you want to make good content with little effort or are low on time and resources.
1. Esummarizer
Esummarizer.com is a great tool for shortening the lengthy text. Unlike most tool websites on the internet that offer multiple tools, Esummarizer.com only offers a summarizing tool.
It is a free tool and users do not need to create an account either. It has no limitations on the number of words that can be summarized, so users can comfortably summarize even the longest articles.
Other features include:
- Choosing the number of sentences in the summary
- Saving/downloading the summary.
The method to use the tool is quite simple and straightforward. There are two text boxes, the one on the left is for inputting text. Users can input text by either pasting it in or typing it themselves.
Then they simply need to click the “Summarize” button. After a few seconds, the text box on the right gets populated with sentences. This is the output and it can be saved using the shortcut button present in the interface.
This tool uses extractive summarizing.
2. Summarizingtool
Summarizingtool.net is an online summarizer. Just like Esummarizer.com it is not a toolkit and only provides a summarizer. This tool is also free to use and does not require creating an account.
However, it has a very small word limit. Users can only summarize up to 500 words. This means that at most, only a few paragraphs from a text can be summarized.
The good things about this tool are the following:
- It is free
- Has a good user interface
- Does not have any advertisements
- Summarizes the text really well.
Owing to its simplistic UI it is very easy and intuitive to use. The user simply needs to paste/type their text into the text box. The box has a label on it saying “Enter text here”.
Once the text has been entered, the user can pick from three summary length options using a slider. Subsequently, they need to complete the captcha and then click on the “Summarize” button.
After a few seconds another text box shows up underneath the first one and it contains the summary of the provided text. Users can download or copy this summary using the shortcut buttons present in the interface.
Just like Esummarizer.com, Summarizingtool.io is also an extractive summarizer.
3. Paraphraserio
This is an online toolkit that provides multiple content optimization tools. One of which is a summarizing tool. The text summarizer by Paraphraser.io is free to use and users are not required to register either.
When it comes to good features this tool has plenty of them. First of all, it is quite easy to enter text into the tool. There are three options;
- Simply type in the content,
- Copy and paste it from somewhere else, and
- Upload a file from the device’s local storage.
There are also no word limits on how much text can be summarized, so users can easily shorten long articles and papers. Another great feature is that this tool supports multiple languages (eight to be exact), so multilingual users and foreigners can also use it.
The last great feature is that this tool provides both copy and download options so that users can save their summaries. Integration with other tools in the toolkit such as a paraphraser and grammar checker are also welcome features.
To use this tool, one simply has to input their content in the left text box by either pasting or uploading it. Then they have to complete the captcha and click the “Summarize Now” button.
This tool is also an extractive summarizer, but using the integrated paraphraser, the summary can be made extractive as well.
4. Editpad Text Summarizer
Summary generator by Editpad.org is a free tool that can be used without registration. It is a great tool for shortening lengthy articles and getting to the gist of the matter quickly.
Like many other tools on this list, it comes with benefits like:
- Multiple language support (seven)
- Copy and download shortcuts
- Integrated tools like paraphraser
- No word limits on summarizing.
These features make it a prime tool to use for summarizing. Unfortunately, it does not come with options to select the length of the summary. That is dependent on the tool’s own judgment.
It is an extractive summarizer, so it uses sentences from the provided text verbatim to make the summary. Users can, however, run the results through the integrated paraphraser which can make it an abstractive summary.
The method of using this tool is the same as the rest. Simply input the text into the text box by pasting or typing. Then complete the captcha and click the “Summarize Now” button. The output is shown in the right text box and can be copied or downloaded.
4. Splitbrain
The summarizer by Splitbrain.org is a great tool to get the salient points of a long article.
It is a free tool and it comes with an option to select the summary size.
Another great feature of this tool is that it allows users to get a summary of online articles simply by providing their URL. But there is no file uploading supported. So, there are only two methods of inputting the text, typing/pasting and using URLs.
As can be seen in the included picture the tool lets the user select the ‘summarization ratio’ and there are eight options to select from. There are many languages supported by the tool (thirty plus!), which makes this tool very versatile and accessible.
The summary itself is shown at the bottom of the page, but unfortunately, it can only be manually copied. There are no options to download or copy the summary using an interface shortcut.
The method of using this tool is very straightforward. There is only one text box and it says “input text here”, so users easily know where they have to put their text.
Then they need to choose “summarize” instead of “keywords”. After that, they have to choose the summarization ratio. As a general rule, a 40% to 50% ratio is a pretty good balance between length and getting all the points in the summary. Shorter than that carries the risk of missing out on important information.
5. Paraphrasingio
While the name of the website may reference a paraphraser, it is by no means the only tool being offered. The summarizer available in this online tool kit is an excellent tool.
Following the trend of this list, this tool is also free and users do not need to create an account to use it. And this does not have any major drawbacks, as all the features are available.
The tool follows the design philosophy that is currently popular; it has two text boxes and the one on the left is for inputting while the one on the right shows the output.
As usual, the methods of inputting include writing, pasting, and uploading files from the device’s local storage. There are no limits on the number of words that can be summarized at once.
The output of the tool can also be directly copied or downloaded using the shortcuts available. If for whatever reason, the user needs to summarize a different text they can use the “clear all” shortcut to wipe the text or click on “Start over” to reload the page.
This tool also does extractive summarizing. It also condenses the text by a large percentage. One paragraph is reduced to one sentence.
Conclusion
Summarizing tools are great for learning the gist of the matter. They allow people to quickly read the most important parts of an article.
There are two main types of summarizers, those that use the extractive technique and those that use the extractive technique.
The extractive summarization technique identifies the best sentences that present the key points and uses them verbatim to create a summary. This is the technique commonly utilized by most summarizers.
The abstractive summarization technique does not use sentences word for word, instead, it rewrites all identified key points using different phraseology to write the summary.
Key points are identified by assigning values to frequently occurring words. AI summarizers take it a step further and check the context before assigning a value as well. The points with the highest value are considered to be key points and are subsequently used in the summary.
Finally, we discussed six summarizing tools that users can utilize for free and without registration. All of the free tools discussed are currently available in 2022 and work as advertised.
There are marginal differences between the tools such as having word limits, integration with other tools, and interface design. It is up to user discretion which tools they want to utilize.