Recommendations for OCR software

OneADay

A mate of mine (who is a train spotter) wants for some reason (which I will never ever understand) to take lots of numbers from bulky books he has from somewhere and put them on his pc as text.

So I suggested he scan them and spend a few years to do that.

I cant suggest a good OCR software - can someone recommend a freeware one which can scan text from images.

-TangleFoot-

Either of these do?

• SimpleOCR
• FreeOCR (requires the .NET Framework)

M4RKM

if it is handwritten, it would be extremley awkward for any OCR to do this.. OCR normally only recognises printed text

OneADay

Thanks - I think SimpleOCR and FreeOCR might be too complex for this chap - he has enough trouble with deleting browsing history let (even though I have told him for the last 5 years). :mad: I will suggest them to him though.

It is printed text - just want some tool to work with images which is basic and as simple as it can get.

-TangleFoot-

If he has a scanner, you may find that OCR software was supplied with it.

OneADay

No scanner - the stuff he is trying to scan must be about A3 size (5 or 6 large books with hundreds of pages)

My suggestion was that he can take pics of the pages with his 6mp camera (uses that normally to take picturs of rusting scrapyards) and then scan the images with something.

The data he is trying to get at is all formatted in columns so its just about getting a simple software for him to scan the images.

-TangleFoot-

OneADay wrote: »

No scanner - the stuff he is trying to scan must be about A3 size

In that case, he may need to consider making his own...