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General => Computers / Internet => Topic started by: tonybloke on March 03, 2009, 22:57:44

Title: O C R
Post by: tonybloke on March 03, 2009, 22:57:44

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

Title: Re: O C R
Post by: BAK on March 04, 2009, 07:10:41

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.

Title: Re: O C R
Post by: tonybloke on March 04, 2009, 07:37:13

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) ?

Title: Re: O C R
Post by: BAK on March 04, 2009, 08:08:29

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?

Title: Re: O C R
Post by: Palustris on March 04, 2009, 12:00:58

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.

Title: Re: O C R
Post by: redimp on March 06, 2009, 18:37:24

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

Title: Re: O C R
Post by: terrier on March 07, 2009, 23:23:30

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.

Title: Re: O C R
Post by: tonybloke on March 08, 2009, 23:46:17

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

Title: Re: O C R
Post by: terrier on March 08, 2009, 23:52:20

Quote from: tonybloke on March 08, 2009, 23:46:17

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.

Title: Re: O C R
Post by: Tee Gee on March 09, 2009, 10:49:43

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!

Title: Re: O C R
Post by: asbean on March 09, 2009, 11:52:43

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