Information request on OCR.

I find it easier to review written material if I have it on screen rather than taking notes so I have tried using the OCR software that came with my Scanner. It is extremely accurate but very slow. At the moment I'm still considering buying a 27" iMac if I can curb my distaste at the way Apple have tried to disguise their greed in making the price increases they have and blamed them on Brexit but back to the case in hand.

I have been told that an OCR system is included with the computer I would like and I would like to know if it's effective or would I be better advised to buy a different one and if so which one?

At the moment I'm still considering buying a 27" iMac if I can curb my distaste at the way Apple have tried to disguise their greed in making the price increases they have and blamed them on Brexit but back to the case in hand.

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LOL, you never give up that theme do you? Give it a rest. ;D

chscag said:

LOL, you never give up that theme do you? Give it a rest. ;D

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I have been told that an OCR system is included with the computer I would like and I would like to know if it's effective or would I be better advised to buy a different one and if so which one?

A different what? OCR, usually comes with scanners.

OCR, usually comes with scanners.

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And with a lot of MF AIO printer/scanners such as Canon's and their Canon IJ Scan Utility.

Check the manual or on-line for help and instructions.






- Patrick
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I'm not aware of any OCR capability that comes directly with the Mac unless a specific vendor is including that as part of the deal.

OCR software is not provided via any Mac, you purchase it either with your scanner or a stand alone application. OmniPress is the best but I am reluctant to tell you how much it costs.


http://www.nuance.com/for-individuals/by-product/omnipage/index.htm

@Balliol1974

My favourite which I've used for years is PDFpen (standard) or PDFpenPro which I now use.

There's a useful video and tutorials on their site: https://smilesoftware.com/pdfpen - and - https://smilesoftware.com/pdfpenpro

Both the standard and Pro versions work very well with all Macs.

Needless to say, but I shall: I have no financial or any other connection with this company. Personal experience with their products, that's all.

Ian

Maybe Dell has OCR?

harryb2448 said:

OCR software is not provided via any Mac, you purchase it either with your scanner or a stand alone application. OmniPress is the best but I am reluctant to tell you how much it costs.
… …

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I had and sometimes used some cheap version of Nuance's OCR many years ago that everybody raved about but I found that FineReader Pro worked faster, easier and more accurate and I see it's on sale for a fraction of the OmniPress software.

Note: Currently available for $79.99
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/49922/finereader-pro

Just use the site to read the reviews if one likes but it looks like it may not be supported for the latest OS X versions, 10.10.x +.

The end of yet another good Mac product it seems like.


EDIT:

OPPPS… my mistake, the pro version HAS been updated to work with the latest OS X versions including Sierra, and also it was ABBYY FineReader Express.app that I used, not the "Pro" version.
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/32172/abbyy-finereader-express






- Patrick
==========

harryb2448 said:

OCR software is not provided via any Mac, you purchase it either with your scanner or a stand alone application. OmniPress is the best but I am reluctant to tell you how much it costs.

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*OmniPage* is currently the most advanced OCR engine for personal computers. Currently there is a Windows version, but the Macintosh version of OmniPage was discontinued over a decade ago. That product was written for PowerPC, so it won't run on a modern Macintosh.

Nuance, developers of OmniPage, offer this product for Mac users, which uses the full OmniPage engine:

PDFConverter ($100)
http://www.nuance.com/products/pdf-converter-mac/index.htm

PDFConverter does an excellent job of OCR (I own a copy), but Nuance is a horrible company to deal with, offering just about no service and support, with multiple reports of them screwing customers.

PDFpen ($75)
https://smilesoftware.com/pdfpen/?
includes much of, but not all of, OmniPage's OCR engine, and it does a quite decent job of OCR. PDFpen is a PDF editor with built-in OCR capability and it is a favorite among professionals who do a lot of work with PDF's, but who don't want to have to pay around $400 for Adobe Acrobat Pro/Mac. It's a good product from a good company.

There are a bunch of other OCR products for the Mac, or products that include OCR. A decent stand-alone OCR program is:

ABBYY FineReader Pro $120
http://finereader.abbyy.com/pro_for_mac/
Review:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2430295,00.asp
http://www.documentsnap.com/ocr-smackdown-abbyy-finereader-vs-adobe-acrobat/

There is also this stand-alone OCR program:

ReadIris $140
http://www.irislink.com/EN-US/c1466/Readiris-16-for-Macintosh---OCR-Software.aspx
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HCORAUU/?tag=macforums0e4-20

which is *not* a highly regarded product compared to the others.

If you want something that is low cost, consider:

PDF OCR (free/$30)
http://solutions.weblite.ca/pdfocrx/
which relies on the open-source OCR engine Tesseract.

If you would like a list of products that do OCR, just let me know. There are a bunch of them. But the above ones are most noteworthy.

pm-r said:

...it was ABBYY FineReader Express.app that I used, not the "Pro" version.
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/32172/abbyy-finereader-express

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ABBYY Finereader *Express* (as opposed to the "Pro" version) is not a commercial product intended for sale to end-users. It is a product that ABBYY sells to third party vendors to include as a value-added product with scanners. It is not available for sale directly to end-users as a stand-alone product. The MacUpdate link that you gave will allow you to download a copy, but it does not include a serial number to register the program, and you can't purchase one. (It comes with a serial number if you get it with a new scanner.)

ABBYY Finereader Express, as indicated by its name, is a feature-limited product that its developer hopes you will like, and therefore shell out the money for the full commercial version.

Even if ABBYY Finereader Express was available for the $99 that MacUpdate says that it is, you can get the full ABBYY Finereader Pro on sale for well less than that.