I've never had any luck with OCR scanning. There were so many missed letters, I found it easier just to type the text in rather than scan and edit. Magazine articles were just as bad as newsprint and of course, handwritten stuff is a total loss for OCR. However, I was using the OCR software that came with the scanner and I understand the better the software is, the better the recognition. Sherry -----Original Message----- From: Carl Sachs [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 9:11 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [SP] Scan to edit text You betcha!! To my knowledge, nearly all scanners come with software that will do the job. Like ALL software, some is better than others. I have two older programs that were designed to scan text and convert to MS Word, but the HP software that came with my 4570 works just fine. For some reason all three programs have the most trouble with newsprint, especially older clippings. Carl Sachs bvma wrote: > > When scanners first came out I heard that one could scan text, then > edit it with a word processor. Comments please..... Is this > possible? Thanks - BA

Some scanned images are too degraded for OCR. I am now considering to scan images of that type and hand written documents into a format where I can split the screen and have the image before me as I copy by hand into a text file on the lower portion of the screen. One thing I discovered when scanning newspapers was that the printed type was of poor quality. When I say poor quality, it becomes obvious when the type was enlarged sufficiently for pixel management it revealed that some pixels of one character would actually be touching a pixel of the next character. This would foil the OCR program. At that time I was scanning from the local newspaper and noticed that many of these errors were exactly the same. To compensate I would correct the errors and add the correction to the software library. During the coming week I may download the ABBYY version 7.0 OCR software. There is a 15 day evaluation period. I will test it against the TextBridge and OmniPage that I now have. At 09:18 AM 3/7/2004 -0800, Sherry wrote: >I've never had any luck with OCR scanning. There were so many missed >letters, I found it easier just to type the text in rather than scan and >edit. Magazine articles were just as bad as newsprint and of course, >handwritten stuff is a total loss for OCR. > >However, I was using the OCR software that came with the scanner and I >understand the better the software is, the better the recognition. > >Sherry > >-----Original Message----- >From: Carl Sachs [mailto:[email protected]] >Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 9:11 AM >To: [email protected] >Subject: Re: [SP] Scan to edit text > > >You betcha!! > >To my knowledge, nearly all scanners come with software that will do the >job. Like ALL software, some is better than others. > >I have two older programs that were designed to scan text and convert to MS >Word, but the HP software that came with my 4570 works just fine. For some >reason all three programs have the most trouble with newsprint, especially >older clippings. > >Carl Sachs > >bvma wrote: > > > > When scanners first came out I heard that one could scan text, then > > edit it with a word processor. Comments please..... Is this > > possible? Thanks - BA

Split screen with a scanned image is a good idea. I transcribed many pages of the 1906 census for the local region with an image on the top half of the screen and spreadsheet open and the same time. Project coordinator had suggested left and right split screen but that seemed too easy to get on the wrong line. An LCD screen larger than 12 inches across might be helpful. It was helpful to have a separate computer with connection to the Internet for checking surnames in local history sources and post office locations. Downloaded OCR software may be limited to one computer with an activation system like Windows XP. The product that I registered about a year ago was not used, and the person who recommended it also went back to OmniPage. I'd be interested in your comments if you compare other OCR products with OmniPage for manual typewriter, old newspapers and old books. -- Elizabeth ----- Original Message ----- From: "Owen Berio" > Some scanned images are too degraded for OCR. I am now considering to scan > images of that type and hand written documents into a format where I can > split the screen and have the image before me as I copy by hand into a text > file on the lower portion of the screen.

Recent versions of OmniPage have worked best for me, allowing helpful conversion of 1930's manual typewriter carbon copy of a business report. Downloaded OCR software from outside the USA tried to recognize every syllable as a different English word. Some researchers deliberately publish a family book in a fancy font or a very small font to save publishing costs. It may be difficult to read or impossible to OCR if the author happens to lose the original "book" file. Old newspaper clippings and books around a hundred years are usually retyped or copied as images of each page. Retyping and editing time will depend on the original copy and the computer operator's skills. Most confusing OCR found by genealogists is from old books published with two columns and footnotes. The footnote ends up in the middle of an unrelated paragraph. Using a word processor, it is possible to add a blank line before and after the "footnote" then search through the text to find the number to match the footnote. -- Elizabeth ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sherry" > I was using the OCR software that came with the scanner and I understand the better the software is, the better the recognition.

Hi Hope this message makes sense! For some time I have scanned Genealogical magazines using the e-mail facility on my HP Scanjet 5370C; and then save the pdf file which enables me to search for words in the text using Adobe's Find tool. However lately I have not been able to use the Find tool as it tells me that there is no specific word when I know there is. This has occurred on my last few scannings. Anyone know what the problem could be? I know if ii was scanned in bmp I would not be able to "search" the pdf document. I cannot find anywhere where I can confirm what the e-mail messages are scanned in (ie jpeg; gif or whatever). If that problem can't be solved I will have to scan them normally as separate pages which would give me up to 40 pdf pages/files within one folder. I presume there is software out there where I can combine the referred to pages. Any suggestions? Thanks for your time Garry New Zealand

Hi Garry, I don't know the facility you refer to - but if the pdf file was able to search for words using the Adobe "find" then you were using some OCR (optical character recognition) software, not any of the graphics formats you mention (bmp, jpg, gif, etc). Hope that helps you to refind the right options. Cathy At 13:03 25/01/2005, Garry F Bell wrote: >Hi > >Hope this message makes sense! > >For some time I have scanned Genealogical magazines using the e-mail >facility on my HP Scanjet 5370C; and then save the pdf file which enables me >to search for words in the text using Adobe's Find tool. However lately I >have not been able to use the Find tool as it tells me that there is no >specific word when I know there is. This has occurred on my last few >scannings. Anyone know what the problem could be? I know if ii was >scanned in bmp I would not be able to "search" the pdf document. I cannot >find anywhere where I can confirm what the e-mail messages are scanned in >(ie jpeg; gif or whatever). > >If that problem can't be solved I will have to scan them normally as >separate pages which would give me up to 40 pdf pages/files within one >folder. I presume there is software out there where I can combine the >referred to pages. Any suggestions? > >Thanks for your time >Garry >New Zealand

> I've never had any luck with OCR scanning. There were so many missed > letters, I found it easier just to type the text in rather than scan > and edit. Magazine articles were just as bad as newsprint and of > course, handwritten stuff is a total loss for OCR. > > However, I was using the OCR software that came with the scanner and I > understand the better the software is, the better the recognition. > > Sherry > To my knowledge, nearly all scanners come with software that will do > the job. Like ALL software, some is better than others. > > I have two older programs that were designed to scan text and convert > to MS Word, but the HP software that came with my 4570 works just > fine. For some reason all three programs have the most trouble with > newsprint, especially older clippings. > > Carl Sachs > > bvma wrote: >> >> When scanners first came out I heard that one could scan text, then >> edit it with a word processor. Comments please..... Is this >> possible? Thanks - BA I'm using Scansoft's Omnipage Pro 12 (OCR), it works extremely well. They have come out with version 14 and were selling off version 12 for $40 Canadian. Great deal! I guess they must be superstitious as there is no mention of version 13 :-) John Zillwood [email protected] Abbotsford Genealogical Society http://www.rootsweb.com/~bcags/