Need software: transcribe text from a scan

TBSN

Senior member
Nov 12, 2006
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I'm not sure what it would be called, but I need software that could take a scanned newspaper and transcibe it to text. Any suggestions?
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
58,544
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If it isn't too much text, you can convert it to a PDF, then copy the text with Foxit Reader. That should work good for 1 document, but if you're doing tons, it would probably get tedious.
 

wirednuts

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2007
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i want to do this to all my textbooks for school. then put them into office and search for keywords i need. this would effectively let me just search for the answers to my homework questions without actually learning much. it would be awesome.
 

TBSN

Senior member
Nov 12, 2006
925
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76
If it isn't too much text, you can convert it to a PDF, then copy the text with Foxit Reader. That should work good for 1 document, but if you're doing tons, it would probably get tedious.

This would be fine I think, it's only one article from a while ago.

You're looking for OCR software which has gotten better over the years. For that task Paperfile (http://www.paperfile.net/) should be up to the task, it's free software.

I'll check this out.

i want to do this to all my textbooks for school. then put them into office and search for keywords i need. this would effectively let me just search for the answers to my homework questions without actually learning much. it would be awesome.

I hear you, I'm always wishing I could do Ctrl+F when I'm reading for class.
 

EagleKeeper

Discussion Club Moderator<br>Elite Member
Staff member
Oct 30, 2000
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i want to do this to all my textbooks for school. then put them into office and search for keywords i need. this would effectively let me just search for the answers to my homework questions without actually learning much. it would be awesome.

It is tedious to scan that many pages. Figure a minute for each page.
With a book, you also have to ensure that you get a good scan. As one gets nead the binding, the curves distort a scan
 

tynopik

Diamond Member
Aug 10, 2004
5,245
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It is tedious to scan that many pages. Figure a minute for each page.
With a book, you also have to ensure that you get a good scan. As one gets nead the binding, the curves distort a scan

with a decent scanner it should go much quicker

BTW Abbyy Finereader is the recommended tool

OTOH, for textbooks, there's a good chance it's already available as an ebook *somewhere*
 

Modelworks

Lifer
Feb 22, 2007
16,240
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Most people that scan textbooks remove the pages. It really is the only way to get a good quality scan. Then they convert to PDF , that keeps any tables and graphs, pictures intact.
Another option, though you can't search is comic book format which is the pages saved as images and then compressed into a single file. It is then read with software like http://comicrack.cyolito.com/