Scan to print???

[Trader]

I have some documents on paper that I would like to incorporate into MS Word. Is it possible to scan the document (into a jpeg) and then use a program to 'copy' the words into teh word processor. In otehr words I want to go from hard copy only to having it available on the computer.

Ayy ideas or program suggestions?

[MAYDAY]

Trader,

It is possible to have a program analyze a scan and copy the words into your word processor. The software which does a good job of this is very expensive however. Most scanners come with some sort of OCR software but the performance is typically marginal at best (50-70% accuracy).

Good Luck

[Kip Powick]

MAYDAY pretty well summed it up. You can buy an OCR program for about $99.00 but it won't be that good. High end OCRs are pretty expensive. You could also go to a PDF program but that again is very expensive as you have to buy the entire setup.

As long as you don't want to do anything with the document, you can scan it as a JPEG and insert it into a MSWord Doc but you can not edit, or type into it.

Based on your posting, perhaps a "spell checker" first?? I had to say that :>

[Idle Thrust]

Further to Kip & Mayday's posts - you might want to check the software that came with your scanner. I bought a new scanner a year ago and was pleasantly surprised to find some pretty decent OCR software embedded in the program.

If you find a "scan document" option which leads you to a "save file as" item, it will let you save it as, at worst, a text file which you can then work with in a word processor.

[Guest JakeYYZ]

Here’s a “freeware” OCR program that works (well..Pretty good in my opinion).

Cut and paste Link:

http://www.freewareweb.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?uid=default&Name=Wocar&sb=0&so=descend

[Trader]

DOH...I should proof read I guess. Fumbling fingers

[GFH]

As others have said most scanners are packaged with a trimmed down version of some OCR (optical Character Recognition) software which usually works reasonably well.

If you need some thing a bit better, or yours as bundled doesn't work, or you don't have one simply got to www.shareware.com or equivalent search, for OCR and downlaod a "30 day trial version" do your stuff and purge the software when it expires (or backdate your system clock to make it work again when the 30 days expires ). There are a couple of good ones.

Cheers

[Guest JakeYYZ]

All true. I used to use Pagis Pro.Went to MS2000

and had to pay for an upgrade, if I wanted to continue

using Pagis. Did a little searching and found ‘Simple OCR’.

It compares favorably with Pagis, in terms of functionality

and recognition accuracy. But, beats the pants off Pagis

in terms of price. Have been using it for a year and am very satisfied.

[Pivot]

GFH. You forgot to mention that he might actually want to purchase the shareware. I know that most Pilots are cheep... but don't assume that all pilots would not want to support shareware. Trying to defeat a trial period is simply wrong... even illegal in some cases. Read the software licensing agreements.