hugh7
Topic Starter
Hi everyone,
I am so pleased to find this site. I hope I fit in.
Retired, enjoying myself, part of which is another elaborate information transcription, mainly for Genealogists.
Using Omnipage OCR software.
I use OmnipagePro 14 pretty much every day for hours on end.
During the last 7 months, many days all day, in a transcription I am doing.
I am pretty handy with software too.
So I try all sorts of angles to try get it to work better.
Trouble is, it probably the best software in the field. Its just that the whole field is entry level.
The doodads over and beyond the basic OCR process, like framing images and paragraphs, are
just a joke. And a sick joke at that since I can find no way to switch them off.
The shot in the dark component, seemingly based on dictionary words is also a similar sick joke.
However..
beware getting rid of a dictionary, that really messes things up. Not as a dictionary, but just
to make the OCR work right.
The software for me has difficulty distinguishing u/n, o/e, i/l. And similar really basic stuff.
So the label "entry level software" is appropriate. I am not talking the just the simpler
versions of the software. I am talking all of it.
Of course, my raw typed documents are not picture perfect, but when I take a look at them
they are very easy to read.
I would categorise as standard, the level of OCR software that can see what I can see.
And advanced OCR software as what can do better than my eye.
I cant wait for someone to take a crack at such software, I wish I had the time.
But OMNIPAGE, they just mess around, no real advance, just raking in money.
A new version every now and then, so people with no experience will pay to update
I have written elaborate software (4,000 line of Fortran) to clean up Omnipage output, but its very
page format specific, and no value to anyone else.
I am really gratefull to the original Omnipage designers, without their design I could
not do what I do. But it really is crappy.
Hugh Tornabene
