OCR

[Elric]

Sorry if this has been discussed before, I trie dthe search thingie and got a blank screen.

I am running OS X on a 17" iMac and I need a good OCR program. I have a Lexmark X75 printer/scanner/copier which doesn't supoprt TWAIN (I don't think it does anyways) so I need an OCR app that can work with some type of image file format.

[Defiant]

<a href="http://www.scansoft.com/omnipage/mac/" target="_blank">http://www.scansoft.com/omnipage/mac/</a>

<a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/applications/omnipage/" target="_blank">http://www.apple.com/macosx/applications/omnipage/</a>

expensive - $500

:)

[Aquatic]

ReadIris. Then I hear there's a third prog, TextBridge or something.

[Defiant]

<a href="http://www.macworld.com/2002/10/reviews/readiris/" target="_blank">Review</a> about ReadIris. doesn't look good.

TextBridge was only under OS 9.

[boy_analog]

Actually, I quite like Readiris. I got v6 a while ago, and only started using it recently. It does a much better job at OCR than Omnipage LE, which came bundled with the scanner. I'm happy with it, especially considering its price. And the multilingual support is very handy too.

If you carefully read that Macworld review, you'll see that Readiris works very well when presented with good, clear text. If the material you want to scan is reasonably clear then you shouldn't have too many problems.

Frankly, rather than fork out the extra money for Omnipage, if I had to scan text that overlaid a background texture, I'd be inclined to process the page through photoshop beforehand.

[burningwheel]

well i bought OmniPage pro x upgrade but it won't install, i get a system error. any ideas?

[GardenOfEarthlyDelights]

Originally posted by burningwheel
well i bought OmniPage pro x upgrade but it won't install, i get a system error. any ideas?
I think there's a bug in the install for X. You have to install in OS9, or something like that. Check their website.

[burningwheel]

Originally posted by GardenOfEarthlyDelights
I think there's a bug in the install for X. You have to install in OS9, or something like that. Check their website.
that's nice, i don't even have 0S 9 installed. so i have to install OS9?...i have one free tech support call, i guess i should call them..:mad:

[Aquatic]

ReadIris is the best but it is a obscure company doing a ghetto mac port unfortunately.

[burningwheel]

i did get it to install with having to boot into 9, someone on the scansoft site had an easier alternative method

well i can't get OmniPage Pro X to work, maybe i don't have the right twain or drivers since i'm using an old scanner. i don't want to buty a new scanner but may have to. i'm currently using VueScan which i believe doesn't use twain?

I do have Reaadiris also but you can't directly scan text as far as i can see