ScanSoft OmniPage Pro 12

APC has a number of tedious yet handy uses and Optical Character Recognition, or 'OCR' as it is more widely known, is one of them. In theory, it's just about turning scans of printed documents into editable text and graphics. In practice, it can save hours of laborious donkey work.

ScanSoft's OmniPage Pro has been doing the job for quite some time. The latest version boasts "a dramatic increase in accuracy", an interface that's easier to use and the ability to turn PDF documents into files that can be edited in a standard word processor.

The new user interface is a doddle to pick up and bringing scanned documents into the program is child's play. The best place for novices to start is the OCR wizard that walks you through the basic procedures step-by-step.

Users can choose either to automatically begin recognition once a scan has been completed or to step in and apply a few tweaks manually before continuing. It's here you can break pages up into 'zones', selecting areas of text and graphics with the mouse to guide OmniPage's efforts.

While the automatic system works well, we found manually zoning often saved time. Finished documents can then be proof-read and spell-checked in the Text Editor and then finally saved in a number of formats, including Word, Excel, HTML and PDF.

OmniPage Pro does what it sets out to do and our tests with various page formats - including A4 letters and magazine layouts - gave us a better level of accuracy than we expected. Nothing was ever perfect but we reckon we hit more than 80 per cent accuracy.

That said, at one point the program didn't even recognise its own name. Fortunately it can be trained as you use it in order to improve results.

If you need an OCR then OmniPage Pro 12 is easy to use and surprisingly accurate. At £89 though, it is only for those who have a real need for it.

DETAILS
Contact: ScanSoft 0870 870 8085

www.scansoft.co.uk

See also:

Abbyy FineReader OCR 6 Professional

If you're frustrated with your OCR package, Abbyy's latest offering may help.  07 Aug 2002

Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below:

 del.icio.us     Digg this     reddit!