Scanner with optical character recognition (OCR) - Recommendations?

jkgray

I am beginning a PhD and I am looking for a scanner mainly for use in scanning in text from books and articles which can then be edited - basically to save me copy typing.

Given I will be using it a lot I am willing to spend a reasonable amount if spending the extra will pay dividends.

In deciding which one to get, I assume most scanners are up to the job of the scanning bit of the process?

I would imagine therefore that what will make the scanner easy to live with or a nightmare will be the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) that comes with the scanner?

Would it be worth buying separate OCR software?

From my very early browsing of the internet I can see that I can get a flat bed HP scanner with OCR software for less than £50 but could just as easily spend £80 on the OCR software alone.

If anyone has any experience in this area I would be very grateful to hear your thoughts.

Thanks in advance for any help that you may be able to provide. :beer:

fwor

Two makers I've tried that bundle OCR software are Lexmark and Canon - or at least they did last time I looked.

Lexmark bundle Abbyy Finereader, and it works quite well but... Lexmark IMO do not make good cheap 3-in-ones, and I don't think they sell stand-alone scanners.

Canon bundle Omnipage SE and it also works well. And my own personal experience of their all-in-ones and dedicated scanners is that they are very well made - the Lide range aren't too expensive either.