ABBYY Updates FineReader OCR Software Scan Text -- Including PDF Files -- With More Accuracy Eric Grevstad
Mon 6/10/02 -- ABBYY USA has shipped a major upgrade of its Windows optical character recognition (OCR) software, ABBYY FineReader 6.0 Professional. Priced at $300 -- or $149 as an upgrade from any other OCR program (including software bundled with scanners -- the new version delivers significant upgrades in accuracy and format retention, as well as the ability to convert Adobe Acrobat PDF files into editable text or save scanned documents in any of six PDF formats.
According to the company, version 6.0's "intelligent background filtering" technology ignores background noise and texture to reduce errors on low-contrast, color, or faded documents by up to 35 percent. It also does a better job of preserving document layout -- including multicolumn pictures and wraparound text, bulleted and numbered lists, and text alignment within tables -- when importing paper files to Microsoft Word or Excel.
Another new feature lets users adjust photo compression to control the quality and file size of graphic elements when saving documents in PDF or HTML formats; DOC, RTF, HTML, and PDF files can be saved at resolutions from 72 to 600 dpi, eliminating the need to rescan images.
A Scan & Read assistant converts paper documents with a single mouse click, while a new full-page WYSIWYG editor makes operation easier. FineReader supports 177 languages and recognizes documents containing multiple languages.
Another new package, FineReader 6.0 Corporate Edition, combines the accuracy and formatting improvements with extra efficiency for office network environments by supporting distributed OCR, letting companies set up a production line of workstations and scanners to scan, recognize, or proofread documents simultaneously. It costs $499 or $399 for a competitive upgrade.
