[Athen] Free and Reliable OCR

[Pielaet, Jon]

Yeah,

Tesseract was a project started by IBM and it does a pretty good job. My
only recommendation would be to increase you input resolution from the
typical 300 dpi to something higher like 500 or 600 dpi for better
results. The open source OCR engines like the one in tesseract or GOCR
(which is another fine project) are not as finely tuned and need more
detail. 

If you're looking for an open source scanning tool for getting TIF files
to put into tesseract or GOCR I would recommend sane or Xsane. It's
easiest to install these in a Unix environment but Windows ports are
also available.

These tools work for most folks. 

Now that being said commercial solutions are almost always more accurate
and reliable.

I'd like to hear how these tools are working for people. I am a real
believer in open source.

Thanks for the thread,

Jon

Jon P. Pielaet
Program Assistant for Instructional Materials
Disability Services for Students
Emma B. Lommasson 154
The University of Montana
Missoula, MT 59812

www.umt.edu/dss/

406-243-2243 Voice/Text
406-243-4461 Direct Line
406-243-5330 Fax
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of Jon Gunderson
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 7:50 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] Free and Reliable OCR

Google has an open source OCR project.

You need to convert the documents to TIFF files to use the engine I
believe.

http://code.google.com/p/tesseract-ocr/



---- Original message ----

>Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:08:48 -0700

>From: "Dave M. Thomas" <Dave.M.Thomas at studentlife.du.edu>  

>Subject: [Athen] Free and Reliable OCR  

>To: "Athen at athenpro.org" <Athen at athenpro.org>

>

>   Hi!

>

>    

>

>   Does anyone know of free or low-cost AND reliable OCR software? A

professor attended a

>   presentation I did on assistive technology and is interested in

running much of her image

>   files through OCR and then listening to them. The presentation was

all about Universal

>   Design for Learning.

>

>    

>

>   Thank you!

>

>    

>

>   Dave

>

>    

>

>    

>

>   Dave Thomas, Assistive Technology Specialist

>

>   University of Denver Disability Services Program

>

>   2050 E. Evans Ave., Suite #30

>

>   Denver, CO 80208

>

>   dave.m.thomas at studentlife.du.edu

>

>   303-871-2269 (phone)

>

>   303-871-3939 (Fax)

>

>    

>

>    

>________________

>_______________________________________________

>Athen mailing list

>Athen at athenpro.org

>http://athenpro.org/mailman/listinfo/athen_athenpro.org

Jon Gunderson, Ph.D.
Coordinator Information Technology Accessibility
Disability Resources and Educational Services

Rehabilitation Education Center
Room 86
1207 S. Oak Street
Champaign, Illinois 61820

Voice: (217) 244-5870

WWW: http://www.cita.illinois.edu/
WWW: https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/jongund/www/

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