I am in possession of a lot of old manuscripts (from word processors), mostly in courier font. I would like to convert these to microsoft word and put some on cd's, so I can store them offsite. I have a brother multi-function machine with a scanner, but I have no dedicated ocr software. Also, I'm cheap. I'd like to spend as little as possible. Any ideas.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
Can't really help you unfortunately. At my former place of employment they used an program called, "Media Read" but it was developed in house and I'm not certain there is a commercial version of it. Also I imagine it was designed specifically to use the industrial scanners they had on site. If you simply wish to store them, why not scan them and archive the image files?
Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
There are also free OCR programs available, including open source. I can't recommend any from personal experience, but download.com offers a few.
Posted by Flying Fish (Member # 12032) on :
I would like to be able to edit them in word format after getting them into the computer. So having pdf files won't do.
Posted by CaySedai (Member # 6459) on :
I don't know if it works for a scanned document, but a regular pdf can be saved as a word document or text. I don't have a scanned pdf to try it on.
Posted by DSH (Member # 741) on :
Have you checked the Brother support center for software updates to your scanner that include OCR functionality?
My HP all-in-one came with OCR software when I bought it.
Posted by Eduardo_Sauron (Member # 5827) on :
I've been using Abby Finereader for years. It's regarded as one of the best professional OCR softwares, and I'm very happy with using it. Rarely misses a letter. By all means, it costs $199, so I don't know if it's in your price range. As a literature professor, I use it a lot to get large quotations, so it has served me well. I even had the trouble to try and make it run in my Ubuntu (9.04) box (using wine), because Finereader is sooo good. By the way: I tried open source ocr softwares, and they don't hold a candle to Finereader.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by DSH: My HP all-in-one came with OCR software when I bought it.
So did my Brother all-in-one. However, because they changed software partners between now and then, getting replacement software for many of their machines is a royal PITA. Which was a problem when I switched to a new computer, letmetellya!