best OCR scanner??
Roger Merritt
mcrogerm at stjohn.ac.th
Fri Sep 2 01:19:18 PDT 2005
At 08:07 PM 9/1/2005 -0700, Gary Kline wrote:
> People,
>
> I want to scan ~400 pp of an out-of-print and out-of-copyright
> book (from 1913) and need to know what the best scanner is
> and if there has been substantial improvement in OCR
> software in recent years. This book has few footnotes
> or different typefaces, so it should make things easier.
>
> Oh, an if there is something that plugs into DOS/DOZE
> and just works, super. I'lll use my W2K box. (Hopefully,
> something that plugs into COM0 or COM1. USB okay too.)
>
> thanks for any clues; I've never used a scanner before!
> --yea, no kidding:-)
I happen to have some recent experience on a Windoze machine that may be
useful. Of the several programs that Google found for me the one that met
my needs best was Textbridge. The others put every paragraph into a
separate text box, made correcting layout and formatting a nightmare.
Textbridge (at least the current version) seems to do a good job as long as
the print is reasonable clear. All the OCR programs I tried had problems
putting pictures in the right place. I don't know what's available for
FreeBSD, since I use my boxen for gateways, not even connected to printers.
I should warn you, though, scanning isn't quick -- figure about two minutes
per page (YMMV) plus any formatting fixup you have to do afterward. There
are industrial-strength applications out there, but they cost.
Can't offer advice about hardware -- I've got an Epson flatbed, pretty
inexpensive but works good.
--
Roger
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