Scan and Recognition Software: A Review of Tools

To digitize books or translate text from a graphic to an editable format, there are many specialized tools. The best of them are described in this article.

ABBYY FineReader

FineReader is a professional program for scanning and recognizing text. It is used by both ordinary users and specialists of large companies. This utility is considered to be the most popular in its segment. Its only drawback is the need to purchase a license. However, you can download a trial version from the official site. The period of its use is limited to fifteen days, but it is possible to recognize no more than 50 pages during this time.

Using FineReader, you can create editable text from paper books (this requires a scanner), PDF documents or images. The scan program can work with 179 languages. Export of results is possible in popular formats of electronic documents or in the mail manager of Outlook. The scanning program completely preserves the structure of the recognized documents. All sub-headings, tables, illustrations, paragraphs will remain in the same place as in the original.

The interface is simple and straightforward. Even an inexperienced user can understand the controls. The inscriptions on all elements are translated into several languages. To select Russian, you need to switch the selector during the installation.

CuneiForm

CuneiForm is a completely free program for scanning text and its subsequent recognition. It was developed by the Russian company Cognitive OpenOCR. The creators themselves call their brainchild an intellectual system, which is designed to simplify the transformation of images or paper documentation into an editable format. Like FineReader, the program saves the document structure.

But unlike it, the built-in algorithms also define the fonts used in the text. As a result, the digitization of documents takes less time. The user can process files in turn for complete control over the processes or in batch mode.

Main features of the application

Main features of the program:

• Use of the scanner;
• Work with twenty languages;
• Support for electronic, newspaper, book fonts;
• The definition of tables, with or without a grid;
• Work with both color and black and white sources.

The utility recognizes text even from substandard scans. Algorithms of the program perfectly cope with faxes, photocopies, printouts from matrix printers. If the individual letters of the words were not recognized correctly, the application will mark them. Subsequently, the text can be processed by the built-in dictionary. You can add words to it. After recognition, the text can be changed in the utility itself, as the editor is built into it.

The scanning program has a simple interface, so even inexperienced users can work in it. In the main window there are large buttons that start the basic operations. Clicking on the icon with a picture of the magic wand, turn on the step assistant. It will guide the user through all stages: scanning, recognition, editing, saving. It will only be necessary to follow the instructions.

The only drawback of the utility is the lack of support for documents in PDF format, and such files are often found.

VueScan

VueScan is a scanning program with built-in support for over 3000 scanner models. It is compatible with all popular operating systems of the Windows family. One of its main advantages is the creation of high quality scans.

The application activates the scanner in a couple of clicks. Built-in tools allow not only transfer materials from paper to digital formats, but also adjust brightness, contrast, resolution, compression ratio. Such functionality will appeal to users working with graphic images.

Scanned documents can be stored in three formats: PDF, TIFF, JPG. The scan program requires a license purchase, but you can try it for free. The interface is not translated into Russian.

Of course, VueScan is not a rival to the two programs listed above. First of all, you can recommend it to those users whose equipment does not work in conjunction with modern software.