armond@sdsu.UUCP (Armond Mehrabian) (09/24/88)
I'v just got my first scanner!!! (before I even own a car-:-:))
I'll post my comments about Apple's latest product another time, for now
we are looking for OCR software that WILL WORK NOW with the Apple Scanner.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
David
BITNET----->>>> QB00579@CALSTATEkorn@eris.berkeley.edu (Peter "Arrgh" Korn) (09/24/88)
Those who have been reading this group for a while and have good memories
may recall my postings a while ago (over a year?) on the deplorable quality
level in all the OCR software out at the time, as well as the serious
reservations I expressed on ReadIt! & it's marketing hype. I said things
like "I doubt we'll see any decent OCR software for at least 3-5 years"
and such.
Well, I went to Seybold last weekend.
I saw a product called "OmniPage" demonstrated there.
I got my socks blown off. This is one impressive product.
The marketroid demonstrated the pre-release version of OmniPage with the
Apple Scanner in Line-Art mode (OmniPage doesn't use grey-scale information),
and glossy magazines he had on hand. The first demo involved a three-column
article with titles in large type (36pt?) and text in smaller type (10pt?).
The scanner took about 14 seconds to get the page in, and then immediately
OmniPage displayed a rough image of the page on the MacII screen, on which
it then drew outlines around all of the text areas (I should mention at this
point that the marketroid had 'accidentally' not put the magazine in straight,
and the image was maybe 3% of of vertical), and started 'hiliting' the
text as it scanned it in. Roughly another 20 seconds later the software was
done. From there it can export into MacWrite, Word, etc. For some reason
it can preserve boldface & italics into MacWrite, but not any of the other
word processors. Maybe that'll be fixed by release (which he said was to
be within the next 2 weeks). The second demo involved a table in another
magazine. He first scanned the page (~14 seconds), and then drew a box
around the table and selected the "spreadsheet/table" option, which, when
it scanned just the table, preserved tab information which he then imported
into MS-Excel.
There were almost no errors - I saw only two: a "0" became "()," and a
"%" didn't make it (forgot what it became). There is still much testing
that needs to occur before I recommend this product; but there is enough
there to warrant investigation! Oh, I should mention that OmniPage
will run only on a MacSE or MacII with at least 4 Meg of RAM... The
price I was given was $795 retail.
OmniPage is published by:
Caere Corp.
100 Cooper Court
Los Gatos CA 95030
800-535-SCAN
Peter
--
Peter "Arrgh" Korn
korn@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU
{decvax,hplabs,sdcsvax,ulysses,usenix}!ucbvax!kornjcc@ut-emx.UUCP (Chris Cooley) (09/25/88)
In article <3165@sdsu.UUCP>, armond@sdsu.UUCP (Armond Mehrabian) writes: > I'v just got my first scanner!!! (before I even own a car-:-:)) > I'll post my comments about Apple's latest product another time, for now > we are looking for OCR software that WILL WORK NOW with the Apple Scanner. > Any suggestions would be appreciated. The only product I know of is OmniPage by Caere Corporation. They got a VERY nice article (not quite a review) in MacWeek (Aug. 16, 1988 issue). This package retails for $795. An IBM version will retail for around $2,000. This is because it is packaged with a 68000 board. The company's address is below. Caere Corporation 100 Cooper Court Los Gatos, CA 95030 (408) 395-7000 (800) 535-SCAN > Thanks in advance, > David No problem. --chris -- J. Chris Cooley | husc6! -\ Computation. Center (COM 1) | im4u! -->-cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!jcc Univ. of Texas at Austin | uunet! -/ Austin, TX 78712 |
isle@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Ken Hancock) (09/28/88)
In article <3165@sdsu.UUCP> armond@sdsu.UUCP (Armond Mehrabian) writes: >I'v just got my first scanner!!! (before I even own a car-:-:)) >I'll post my comments about Apple's latest product another time, for now >we are looking for OCR software that WILL WORK NOW with the Apple Scanner. >Any suggestions would be appreciated. > OmniPage. We just received it the other day, works very well. No time-consuming teaching is needed. Just set the text down on the scanner and let it go. Don't know how much it was, offhand, but I'm sure it's not a cheapie. Ken Ken Hancock '90 | BITNET/UUCP/ Personal Computing Ctr Consultant | INTERNET: isle@eleazar.dartmouth.edu -----------------------------------+---------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER? I don't get paid enough to worry about disclaimers.
6uldv8@Apple.COM (almost awake) (09/29/88)
>In article <3165@sdsu.UUCP> armond@sdsu.UUCP (Armond Mehrabian) writes: > >OmniPage. We just received it the other day, works very well. No > >Don't know how much it was, offhand, but I'm sure it's not a cheapie. about $800 retail. Probably worth it if you need this. I have also heard that it is very good. I will be evaluating it next week, if anyone's interested I can let you know how it performs. :-)) -------------------------------------------------------------------- csnet: 6uldv8@apple.com Apple Computer, Inc. UUCP: {sun, nsc, voder}!apple!6uldv8 Disneyland, Ca XOXOX Disclaimer: My views do not represent the views of anyone at all. Member: Banzi Social Club, 1988
dennisg@pwcs.StPaul.GOV (Dennis Grittner) (10/05/88)
Well, every once in a while you see a piece of software work that is pretty darned good and you feel the need to comment on it - - Omnipage is such a piece of software. Last Friday we got our Apple Scanner - it seems competent enough - nothing special and we also got Omnipage. I haven't read the manual yet! It works well enough and obviously enough that I've scanned in Pulp Newspaper scruff in columns into Macwrite, typed documents with 100% recognition or darned near most of the time and the ability to scan multiple pages into a single document. It is FAST and very accurate - compared to anything else in it's price range that I know about. I would recommend that folks stick with a Mac II since that is the way the software is shipped. You can send your disk off and get a 68000 version but I don't think they really intend for a whole lot of folk to do that cause of the speed difference. I think they are probably hard-coding for the math co-processor ( 68881 ) so they can't let you run the same software on a 68000 ( just a guess ). Where could it be improved? The retention of layout. Sometimes it gets pretty confused about where things should go relative to columns, etc. I suspect that a future release might make this work better - but I'm guessing here. Again, I haven't read the manual but I don't see TOO many ways to automatically keep complex formatting in a scanned document. I am very impressed with the software - hope they make a bundle of $$$ and continue to work and improve the software. I'm recommending it to anybody who might want to do some OCR scanning. Apple sure got lucky on this one cause the Apple software that comes with the scanner is OK but Omnipage makes the scanner worthwhile all by itself, and the some -- Dennis Grittner City of Saint Paul, Minnesota (612) 298-4402 Room 700, 25 W. 4th St. 55102 "Let's just put Ollie, Ronnie, and George in jail!"
simon@mmpe.uucp (Simon Tortike) (10/09/88)
The OmniPage OCR software package has received lots of good press on the net recently. Our local vendor of scanners told me they had never heard of OmniPage, presumably because they were so happy with another OCR program: TextScan by New Image Technology (apologies if there are any mistakes here). It is bundled with their MacScan scanner. Is there anyone with experience with both who would be prepared to comment on their relative merits? I should also be interested in hearing how these programs cope with Greek letters, italics, and sub- and superscripts embedded in text. Do mathematical equations, line or display, interfere with the procedure? Thanks, ------------------- Simon Tortike, Department of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineering, The University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, CANADA T6G 2G6. UUCP: alberta!simon | BITNET: stortike@ualtavm | AGT: +1 403 432-3338
franco@olivej.olivetti.com (Franco Salomone) (10/14/88)
In article <1707@pembina.UUCP>, simon@mmpe.uucp (Simon Tortike) writes: > The > ... > I should also be interested in hearing how these programs cope > with Greek letters, italics, and sub- and superscripts embedded in text. I too need to read grek text. I have a MAC II and an Agfa scanner. Does anyone have any direct experience reading greek text? Does Omnipage handle other types of scanners, or only the Apple scanner? Thanks in advance.