Topic: O C R

[tonybloke]

does anyone use this? if so, what do you think of it?
(optical character recognition)

[BAK]

I have used it a handful of times, i.e. only when I have to.

It has never been 100% accurate but it has been no big deal to check the results and amend the output where necessary.

[tonybloke]

I was thinking of using it, I've got a load of documents which need updating into a digital format. (allotment tenancy agreements, rules, membership lists, etc) ?

[BAK]

from memory the last time I used it there were about 6 changes that I had to make to a single page.

Although it sounds a lot it was infinitely better than retyping the whole page.

Why dont you try it with a small sample initially?

[Palustris]

I used something similar to get my tryped out stories on to the computer. It obviously made a fair number of errors, especially as the typing was old and faded, but it took little time to use a Word processing program to check the results and was far easier than typing the whole thing in.

[redimp]

I use it to prepare shared texts for the interactive whiteboard.  With a good quality original, often no amendments needed and not many per page of less good quality.  A big time saver for me - I use Textbridge

[terrier]

I've used OCR lite versions bundled with printer software and it's been useless, but using the full paid for pro versions, with a bit of fine tuning, is excellent. Hope this helps.

[tonybloke]

Having a go with ABBYY fine reader, pretty good so far!! ;)

[terrier]

Having a go with ABBYY fine reader, pretty good so far!! ;)

That's the one I tried. There's a big difference between the lite version and the full pro version.

[Tee Gee]

I find Abby fine reader pro an excellent bit of software!

Beats epson 'smart panel' hands down (this was free software that came with my scanner.)

So I guess you gets what you pay for!

[asbean]

My blind friends have ABBYY pro version, works a treat for them and they use it all the time