Which OCR to use with Scansnap?

[Peter Bulthuis 1]

I have the Scansnap iX1600. And I think there are three ways to get OCR on a pdf? Through Evernote, ABBY Finereader and Scansnap itself. 

Which OCR system is the best to use? 

I have some odd issues with both ABBY and Scansnap OCR.

Even when I check 'Delete image after recognition', ABBY is making two pdf files: one without OCR and one with OCR and won't delete the pdf without OCR. So Evernote is importing both.

When using Scansnap OCR the result is that selected text (when copy and paste it in Word or Notepad) is visible in a very small bar on the left side of the paper. Text does not extend across the page. While ABBY OCR does. 

What OCR system do you use with Scansnap and Evernote?

 

Thanks!

 

Peter

[gazumped 11,713]

Hi.  Just to be difficult I use Adobe OCR.  My system is to scan without OCR to a folder on my desktop.  My ScanSnap (a venerable S1500) has an option to scan to folder,  and as part of that operation it will allow me to name the file to be saved.  I add my title - which is a combination of date (of the document, not the scan) / type (letter / receipt / leaflet) / name (of the author/ originator) / keywords (anything that seems helpful) - and save. 

Saving to folder means I can fix any errors,  merge or edit contents and generally tidy up my files.  Once I have finished scanning I then import all the files into Acrobat for a batch OCR,  which completes while I do something else.  Then I dump all the files into an Import Folder which sucks them into my default folder,  and Filterize will then tag and move them to the appropriate notebook(s).

I've used ABBY in the past and don't remember it making two files,  and ScanSnap is normally pretty good at OCR - I just avoid that because each scan then takes a little longer to complete.  My ScanSnap though does generate one normal,  searchable PDF file.  I'd suggest you have a look at the settings on your software and maybe talk to their help teams to improve the performance.

There maybe someone else here who uses an iX600 who can comment more contructively...

[HeBoIz 247]

I used to have a similar routine like @gazumped with my ix500. Instead of passing to Acrobat (Destiller) for batch ocr, I did this manually.

For two years now I trust on ScanSnap OCR, directly importing to EN-notebooks. (If there are errors to fix, pages to delete or rotate I do this later in Acrobat, when I happen be confronted with such issues). This routine is fast enough for my use, I collect similar documents for the same target-notebook in EN and do my batch scanning. Scanning and ocr are pretty fast. Mostly I'am doing some cleaning and organizing work while organizing the papers for scanning, physical filing or going to the bin...

OCR quality with scansnap is good enough for my purposes. (If it gets critical for pure text an copy and paste I use additional OCR scanning of zoomed documents with abbyy screenshot reader...)