free OCR program?

I'm with Heirloom here, I think I've only used mine a couple of times. I
got OmniPage with my scanner and I can't even remember what version as
it's been that long since I used it g
Joan

Gary S. Terhune wrote:
Be very glad you don't need to use one! Seldom am I as frustrated as
when I try to use a cheap OCR app, or even a very good one when the
image is poor.

It's not a super common acronym like HD/MB/OS. My first thought was they
should mention what it stands for. Then I figured someone would know what
it stands for, and anyone who has to look it up must not work with that
frequently enough to provide a very useful answer. Offhand it sounds like
it stands for something like Obsessive Compulsive Redundancy. I thought
maybe they needed help with a mental condition. I haven't had to use any
character recognition software lately, but I'd have to guess the responses
are accurate, that to get one that works great out of the box is going to
cost a bit. I hear they've done a lot with voice recognition, but somehow I
believe characer recognition is still a long way from the movies where they
can just snap a pic with a spycam, upload it to the computer, and suddenly
have a nice searchable document on file.


"Gary S. Terhune" none wrote in message
...
Ummm... And Official Cash Rate is related to computers how? Whereas OCR as
Optical Character Recognition is inherently a computer topic.

FYI, the OP *did* come here with a question, one that was perfectly
understood by everyone here, including you, I presume. Your only purpose
was to strut your imagined superiority and harass the OP to no purpose.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

"ctowers" wrote in message
...
1. Gary assumes everyone either has a question or can provide an answer.
2. "WTF" and "acronym" were intentionally ment to be used together.
3. There is nothing wrong with using an acronym, as long as it's defined
first:
Official Cash Rate (OCR) - now everyone is on the same page - get it?
--
_ct_

I want to scan several years worth of minutes for board of directors
meetings. Obviously I could scan them in as images, but then I'd lose the
ability to search through the documents for key words. My scanner (an old
cheapo HP) comes with a primitive OCR program, but I was hoping to find a
freebie that was less error prone.


"Gary S. Terhune" none wrote in message
...
| I thought you might have... Just wanted to cover the bases. Sorry that I
| can't honestly recommend any but the high-priced ones. I once went
through a
| lot of testing, and even the ones that cost less than a hundred bucks all
| failed in my book. Too many errors that needed correcting, and no easy
way
| to do that correcting. What are your exact needs? To do a lot of
scanning? A
| little every once in a while? Scanning what kinds of documents?
|
| --
| Gary S. Terhune
| MS-MVP Shell/User
| www.grystmill.com
|
| "Jean" wrote in message
| ...
| Being resourceful, I did a google search before I posted here. I was
| hoping
| that someone in the newsgroup could make a recommendation.
|
|
| "Gary S. Terhune" none wrote in message
| ...
| | AFAIC, it's hard to find a decent OCR program that you PAY for. I
doubt
| I
| | would consider any free OCR "decent", but then, I'm a perfectionist
with
| | high demands when it comes to OCR. I've done several projects wherein
I
| | batch-process hundreds or thousands of already scanned images and
then
| put
| | them into searchable databases. (Largest project, and the first I
did,
| was
| | ~650,000 pages.) I use ABBYY FineReader http://tinyurl.com/2pdrbo
| |
| | That said, Google is your friend. Here's a few. Why don't you test
them
| out
| | and report back?
| | http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=OCR+free
| |
| | --
| | Gary S. Terhune
| | MS-MVP Shell/User
| | www.grystmill.com
| |
| | "Jean" wrote in message
| | ...
| | Anyone know of a decent basic free OCR program that works on Win
ME?
| |
| | Thanks,
| |
| | Jean
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|

You're a gentleman, at least, (unless you're a lady?) s

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

"ctowers" wrote in message
...
Gary S. Terhune wrote:

Doesn't matter what your point was, your effect was to belittle the
OP.

Point taken.
--
_ct_

Well, as you've noted, nobody here has a decent recommendation for you,
other than to try several and see what the results are. If I recall
correctly, most of the paid versions have trial demos that you can at least
test for efficacy before purchasing. While the user interface may not make
it easy to find, you should be able to process stored images and not have to
scan each time you want to process a page. IOW, you can scan several pages
and store them, then try the same images on different OCR apps. Note that
the best formats for images headed for OCR are loss-less types like BMP or
TIFF. JPEGs are lossy compressed and the edges of fonts get blurred. OK for
large type, not good for small type or where the paper quality of the
document is less than pristine. Unless the software states its preferred
resolution, you scan at the highest resolution your scanner is capable of,
but if the paper is dirty or aged, using a lower resolution can actually
work better. You judge that based upon false returns of text where there
isn't any, or mistaken returns that visual inspection suggests are due to
smudging, dirt, etc. It's an acquired talent, even with the good software.
Underlining, italics and colors other than black are major tripping points.
Be sure to include those cases in your testing if they apply. (Scanning in
B&W sometimes helps with colors.)

"...board of directors..." Is that a corporation, government agency, or a
non-profit? If non-profit, I offer my services for a *very* reasonable price
(but you do the scanning.) If not, it would cost you a lot less to simply
buy the ABBYY software. You won't get the database I usually produce,
because I use Concordance (www.dataflight.com) -- it's expensive and
requires that the *user* own a copy. Besides, it's designed for legal usage,
and while it would work for other purposes, it's overkill. If you take me up
on the offer, just know that I'm pretty busy at the moment with house
repairs and a couple of other projects. Might be a month or two (or three or
four) before I could get to it. You can contact me at
gryst_at_grystmill.com.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

"Jean" wrote in message
...
I want to scan several years worth of minutes for board of directors
meetings. Obviously I could scan them in as images, but then I'd lose the
ability to search through the documents for key words. My scanner (an old
cheapo HP) comes with a primitive OCR program, but I was hoping to find a
freebie that was less error prone.


"Gary S. Terhune" none wrote in message
...
| I thought you might have... Just wanted to cover the bases. Sorry that I
| can't honestly recommend any but the high-priced ones. I once went
through a
| lot of testing, and even the ones that cost less than a hundred bucks
all
| failed in my book. Too many errors that needed correcting, and no easy
way
| to do that correcting. What are your exact needs? To do a lot of
scanning? A
| little every once in a while? Scanning what kinds of documents?
|
| --
| Gary S. Terhune
| MS-MVP Shell/User
| www.grystmill.com
|
| "Jean" wrote in message
| ...
| Being resourceful, I did a google search before I posted here. I was
| hoping
| that someone in the newsgroup could make a recommendation.
|
|
| "Gary S. Terhune" none wrote in message
| ...
| | AFAIC, it's hard to find a decent OCR program that you PAY for. I
doubt
| I
| | would consider any free OCR "decent", but then, I'm a perfectionist
with
| | high demands when it comes to OCR. I've done several projects
wherein
I
| | batch-process hundreds or thousands of already scanned images and
then
| put
| | them into searchable databases. (Largest project, and the first I
did,
| was
| | ~650,000 pages.) I use ABBYY FineReader http://tinyurl.com/2pdrbo
| |
| | That said, Google is your friend. Here's a few. Why don't you test
them
| out
| | and report back?
| | http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=OCR+free
| |
| | --
| | Gary S. Terhune
| | MS-MVP Shell/User
| | www.grystmill.com
| |
| | "Jean" wrote in message
| | ...
| | Anyone know of a decent basic free OCR program that works on Win
ME?
| |
| | Thanks,
| |
| | Jean
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|

hey ctowers, ther was nothing wrong with jeans question?? your the problem,
sorry were all not computer "literate as you" . some of us need questions
like jean asked. I just got a scanner with an OCR program. just read what it
means ,still can't use it. these forums ,i thought were here to help use with
vista, not be belittled by guys like you,you started you answer with WTF? why
didn't you spell it out,now I have to go look up WTF!!!!

"ctowers" wrote:

WTF does everyone use an acronym when they want help ??
Too lazy to spell it out so they make everyone else look it up !!!
Don't deserve any help.
--
_ct_


Jean wrote:
Anyone know of a decent basic free OCR program that works on Win ME?

Thanks,

Jean

Gary S. Terhune wrote:

Ummm... And Official Cash Rate is related to computers how? Whereas OCR as
Optical Character Recognition is inherently a computer topic.

Of course everybody knows it stands for Old Computer Relics. Jean said
it was need to scan minutes from board of director meetings so in this
case it probably means Old Corporate Relics.

John

That makes no sense. This is the WinME forum. What are you trying to say
about Vista?
Are you trying to say you're not computer literate, but you like cryptic
computer acronyms?
I can understand what ctowers was saying, and I'll agree with OP (original
poster) was lazy for not only abbreviating as such but for not providing any
additional information such as the quantity or quality of information to be
scanned, although (as I said before) anyone else looking for the same help
and anyone with any really useful reples probably knows what they're talking
about with that acronym (personally I think it just sounds like "what do you
get when you combine OCD with a VCR?").

With the invention of the Instant Messenger (IM) hand held devices, younger
people are using smaller keyboards and expecting quick responses. They've
learned to abbreviate everything. WTF (what the fudge?) is one of the more
common abbreviations, though personally I prefer WTH (what the heck?). If
there isn't already, there aught to be a dictionary of these acronyms.
WTF W8 4 U B4 IMHO LMAO L8R FYI FWIW
OCR OP HD PGM OS GB RAM MS IE OEM
just to name a few

"tcseacliff69" wrote in message
...
hey ctowers, ther was nothing wrong with jeans question?? your the
problem,
sorry were all not computer "literate as you" . some of us need questions
like jean asked. I just got a scanner with an OCR program. just read what
it
means ,still can't use it. these forums ,i thought were here to help use
with
vista, not be belittled by guys like you,you started you answer with WTF?
why
didn't you spell it out,now I have to go look up WTF!!!!

"ctowers" wrote:

WTF does everyone use an acronym when they want help ??
Too lazy to spell it out so they make everyone else look it up !!!
Don't deserve any help.
--
_ct_


Jean wrote:
Anyone know of a decent basic free OCR program that works on Win ME?

Thanks,

Jean

http://www.gaarde.org/acronyms/

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

"Eric" wrote in message
...
That makes no sense. This is the WinME forum. What are you trying to say
about Vista?
Are you trying to say you're not computer literate, but you like cryptic
computer acronyms?
I can understand what ctowers was saying, and I'll agree with OP (original
poster) was lazy for not only abbreviating as such but for not providing
any additional information such as the quantity or quality of information
to be scanned, although (as I said before) anyone else looking for the
same help and anyone with any really useful reples probably knows what
they're talking about with that acronym (personally I think it just sounds
like "what do you get when you combine OCD with a VCR?").

With the invention of the Instant Messenger (IM) hand held devices,
younger people are using smaller keyboards and expecting quick responses.
They've learned to abbreviate everything. WTF (what the fudge?) is one of
the more common abbreviations, though personally I prefer WTH (what the
heck?). If there isn't already, there aught to be a dictionary of these
acronyms.
WTF W8 4 U B4 IMHO LMAO L8R FYI FWIW
OCR OP HD PGM OS GB RAM MS IE OEM
just to name a few

"tcseacliff69" wrote in message
...
hey ctowers, ther was nothing wrong with jeans question?? your the
problem,
sorry were all not computer "literate as you" . some of us need questions
like jean asked. I just got a scanner with an OCR program. just read what
it
means ,still can't use it. these forums ,i thought were here to help use
with
vista, not be belittled by guys like you,you started you answer with WTF?
why
didn't you spell it out,now I have to go look up WTF!!!!

"ctowers" wrote:

WTF does everyone use an acronym when they want help ??
Too lazy to spell it out so they make everyone else look it up !!!
Don't deserve any help.
--
_ct_


Jean wrote:
Anyone know of a decent basic free OCR program that works on Win ME?

Thanks,

Jean

Actually, looking up OCR (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCR) returns several
definitions which apply to computers.
Optical Character Recognition
Original Cast Recording
Optimum Currency Region
OverClocked Remix

and a few not so computery:
Oxford, Cambridge, and RSA
OoCyte Retrieval
Official Cash Rate
Office of Civil Rights

(John suggested Old Corporate Relics)
With such a limited description of the problem, I still say they're looking
for a computer program to help with their mental health issue.
(Obsessive Compulsive Recorder?)
For all we know, they need a program to run their Oceanic Core Reactor.

"Gary S. Terhune" none wrote in message
...
Ummm... And Official Cash Rate is related to computers how? Whereas OCR as
Optical Character Recognition is inherently a computer topic.

FYI, the OP *did* come here with a question, one that was perfectly
understood by everyone here, including you, I presume. Your only purpose
was to strut your imagined superiority and harass the OP to no purpose.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com