OCR software

[Myron Gochnauer goch@xxxxxxxx]

... sorry for coming into the middle of this thread and perhaps
missing the point.
In the Mac world ReadIris Pro seems to be the best OCR program. There
is a Windows version too; Mac seems to be the tag-along.
It is not inexpensive --- indeed, it is downright expensive if you
want the "corporate" version --- but it seems to work nicely. In my
case email support has been helpful though somewhat sluggish.

I think there is a trial version of the Windows product: www.readiris.com
Because I distribute class materials to my students in PDF format, I
normally keep up with the versions of Adobe Acrobat. I now find myself
using the Acrobat OCR function more often than ReadIris. I have not
carefully compared their accuracy, but my sense is the the Acrobat
quality is not as good. It is, however, very convenient to scan text
into a PDF file, for use as is, and then OCR the file. The result is a
PDF file containing text rather than an image of the text. I can then
select text from the OCR'd file and insert it into my lecture notes
and handouts.
I have applied the PDF-plus-OCR approach to entire books this year. In
my Contracts Notes folder, for instance, I keep PDF's of the entire
casebook (divided by chapter) as well as Adobe's OCR'd version of
these files. The scanned PDF's give me accurate "originals", and the
OCR'd versions give me easy access to bits and pieces I want to insert
into my notes.
I scan books using the Plustek Opticbook 3600 scanner. It is certainly
worth the street price of $250 if you frequently scan books or
periodicals. Its main claim to fame is that the scan glass runs right
up to the edge of the scanner so you can scan much closer to the
center spine while only opening the book to 90 degrees. If you've
ever tried to scan old English case reports you know how difficult it
is to get those fat, stiff old volumes to lie flat enough without
damaging them. The Opticbook make it *much* easier. Windows only. Pity.

Myron