OCR-Optical Character Reader

[Guinevere]

Has anyone used one of these?

And does anyone know of a good one, not too pricey?

[WendyPusey]

I have OCR software that came with my scanner. Have used it a couple of times and it depends on how you set it up and the quality of the document as to how accurate a result you get.

[Mary from Italy]

I use Abbyy Finereader, which got the best reviews when I bought it:

ABBYY - OCR, ICR, OMR, Data Capture and Linguistic Software

The other good one is called Omnipage, if I remember rightly.

You can download a trial version of Finereader to try before you decide whether to buy it.

The OCR programs that come bundled with scanners are usually not as accurate as these two.

When you test the program, try it with tables as well as ordinary text; tables are the thing that most programs make a mess of (and even Finereader doesn't handle them too well).

[Guinevere]

Thanks, Wendy.

Dad left a lot of typewritten notes, papers, poems etc and my hands aren't up to typing them all in.

Thanks, Mary as well, we cross posted.

[MarionH]

Same here - sometimes it is more trouble than it is worth unless it is clear normal type - it just depends on what you are using it for.

[TrevorFranklin]

I find with OCR software that I spend more time proof reading and correcting the errors of text that the software 'thought' was correct, but ended up as gobbeldegook, than actually typing it in myself.

[Mary from Italy]

That's true if you use a poor program or the quality of the text is very poor - e.g. a very faint fax. Don't expect it to read handwritten text, though.

If the quality of the text is reasonable, then you shouldn't have to spend much time doing corrections. The program should have a spellchecker, which will do most of the corrections for you.

[Guinevere]

Thanks, everyone.

Proofreading isn't a problem, I have problems with my hands and the thought of typing it all out is really daunting.

[Mary from Italy]

Just checking the Abby site; ABBYY FineReader 9.0 Professional Edition, the one I have, costs €159, which is very expensive for private use (mine is for business use, so it was tax-deductible).

However, if you don't have too many documents to do, the 14-day free trial may be sufficient. I don't remember Abby's free trial conditions; I tried at least 2 programs before buying, and one of them only allowed me to do about 3 pages, but I forget which one.