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Question

Advice on an OCR application free or paid for.

Mar 31, 2017 8:26AM PDT

I am dyslexic. In my case one of the problems dyslexia gives me is that when I wish to copy a quote from a book onto my word processer, between the time that I have read the quote and attempted to type it onto my paper I’ve forgotten it. I try to get round this by cutting and pasting quotes from the Internet and work from them having of course acknowledged them.
I am reviewing a book at the moment and am fed up with taking handwritten notes from it so I thought that I would try scanning pages then put them through an OCR system and cut and paste what I need. I was recommended to try an application called, “Free Online OCR” and unlike the OCR system that I used many years ago it worked like a treat with very few mistakes.
That was great until after converting four pages a message came up telling me that there were no more pages and I would have to buy some. I have no problem with paying for help but I resent being taken for a fool so I looked on the Internet for some OCR systems and many of them appear extremely expensive so I have two questions.
Just in case there are some genuine free OCR systems could anyone recommend any?
If there are no genuinely free OCR systems can anyone recommend a reasonably priced one?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
My advice
Mar 31, 2017 8:28AM PDT

Is get over the demo message and if it works, pay for it.

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Advice on an OCR application free or paid for.
Mar 31, 2017 8:38AM PDT

Could you be more precise, I did ask the following questions.

Just in case there are some genuine free OCR systems could anyone recommend any?
If there are no genuinely free OCR systems can anyone recommend a reasonably priced one?

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While there are free OCR I fear you may be upset
Mar 31, 2017 9:02AM PDT

At how they work. For example I used TESSERACT in a system and it's free but would you put up with it? I doubt it.

You found a working OCR that fit how your work. It's good enough for you to pine for it so it may be time to pay for it.

Yes, there are free OCR (you can google for them) but will you put up with all the work involved?

Example: http://alternativeto.net/software/tesseract/

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While there are free OCR I fear you may be upset
Mar 31, 2017 9:39AM PDT

Many thanks for the advice. I have looked at Abbey FineReader and it looks good but I can't justify that price for something that I will not use that often.
Your words, "but will you put up with all the work involved?" worried me because the one thing that I can say about “Free Online OCR” is it is easy to use.
1. Open it from the Internet.
2. Log in.
3. Uplift the scanned page in JPG format.
4. Click onto "Convert".
5. Key in a code number and away it goes.
I said above that I don't mind paying for applications but I resent it when they take the micky such as the famous application that offers a free look at your computer, finds a mass of imaginary faults and then asks for money to fix them.
Is TESSERACT really difficult to use?

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For me, no.
Mar 31, 2017 9:48AM PDT

I'm comfortable with image pre-processing and command line use. Look up the GE-210 to see the computer I wrote my first computer program on.

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Answer
Why not save as PDF?
Apr 1, 2017 8:52AM PDT