[spiderowych]

Is there any scan to text free programs to download?

[crazy4laptops]

spiderowych, on 21 September 2011 - 04:29 PM, said:

Is there any scan to text free programs to download?

Evernote supports OCR (optical character recognition)

Did your scanner come with software? (what is the make/model?)

[smax013]

spiderowych, on 21 September 2011 - 04:29 PM, said:

Is there any scan to text free programs to download?

Most scanners these days will come with some sort of included OCR software.

[Szczecinianin]

spiderowych, on 21 September 2011 - 04:29 PM, said:

Is there any scan to text free programs to download?

I don't use them but yes, there are. Those listed or it is an online OCR. And some scanners, such as HP, enable using any OCR software. You only need to configure it.

[amphi]

spiderowych, on 21 September 2011 - 04:29 PM, said:

Is there any scan to text free programs to download?

HP printers have an OCR software that can do 'scan to text'. Though sometimes there are some letters missed out.

[brainout]

You're better-off scanning to pdf. For that, you need to buy a scanner. Find one which will scan to pdf or to your computer, at which point you can find software which will 'convert' the scan. But you get what you pay for. Free programs are buggy, and will cost you more time than if you bit the bullet and BOUGHT a converter.

Converters are everywhere, free and probably already on your machine. In Word, for example, any document I can open in Word (so need the pdf converter, in earlier versions of Word) -- I can convert straight to text, simply by saving the document as a 'txt' file. Sometimes I do that, too, in order to reformat or edit on a massive scale, something someone else wrote (like Shakespeare, in Google Docs). But there are many options here.

So here's what I did:

1. Scanners are usually bundled with other functions like faxing/printing/copying so tend to be good buys. My favorite combined scanner is Brother MFC (be sure to pick one which can function on a network, in case you want to resell it later), usually priced in Amazon at between $250-$400, new. (If not new, get refurbished, because the #1 malfunction problem is lack of cleaning.)

2. My favorite standalone scanner is Fujitsu S1500, usually priced at $400 or so (new). It will quickly scan and convert whatever you want however you want, all in one package. But it's only a scanner. Read the review on it, because it's not TWAIN-compatible, which means you have to use its own included software or its INCLUDED Acrobat X, standard, to make TWAIN-compatible files. (You can't search or manipulate a non-TWAIN file in Windows computers.)

3. My favorite converter is Smart PDF Converter Pro. It converts pdf and graphic files to Word or other file formats, but won't make them readable unless scanned that way. Hence #2 and #1, above. It costs $100, now. You can get 'free' converters, but they don't necessarily convert. So you waste time trying them out.

I believe in free trials, but not free software. There's no incentive to get all the bugs worked out, if it's free. You need free trial to see if the program will work on your system and do what you want it to do. And if it will, then of course you want to support the maker, via purchase.

This post has been edited by brainout: 18 August 2012 - 09:05 AM

[macgal]

spiderowych, on 21 September 2011 - 04:29 PM, said:

Is there any scan to text free programs to download?

Not free, but pretty accurate and fast is OCRKit, for already scanned documents to be converted into text.
Or ExactScan Pro which has an OCR built-in engine and is used for optimized scanning, and then searchable (thru Sporlight) and editable text.
Scan to PDF is one of the main features. Give it a try. I am fully satisfied and finally set up my paper workflow!