OCR howto?

[Laurent CHARLES 4]

Hello,

 

I find some talks on the net about potential OCR of image notes (e.g. scans, written notes on tablets, etc.)

I could not find out if this feature is really available, and if so, how to enable it.

 

Can anyone provide more information?

How to do it?

 

Thankx a lot

-- Laurent

 

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Hello,

I find some talks on the net about potential OCR of image notes (e.g. scans, written notes on tablets, etc.)

I could not find out if this feature is really available, and if so, how to enable it.

Can anyone provide more information?

How to do it?

Thankx a lot

-- Laurent

Searching the board on "OCR images" (without quotes) yields several results including this one.

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/31659-ocr-for-imported-pictures/

[Laurent CHARLES 4]

 

Hello,

I find some talks on the net about potential OCR of image notes (e.g. scans, written notes on tablets, etc.)

I could not find out if this feature is really available, and if so, how to enable it.

Can anyone provide more information?

How to do it?

Thankx a lot

-- Laurent

Searching the board on "OCR images" (without quotes) yields several results including this one.

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/31659-ocr-for-imported-pictures/

 

Hi, Thank you for your reply.

I've seen this. My problem is that this describes that it does it, but not how it can work for me, how should I setup anything, what I should do, etc.

Maybe I could just start by checking what I'm supposed to have/see?

Thx

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

 

 

Hello,

I find some talks on the net about potential OCR of image notes (e.g. scans, written notes on tablets, etc.)

I could not find out if this feature is really available, and if so, how to enable it.

Can anyone provide more information?

How to do it?

Thankx a lot

-- Laurent

Searching the board on "OCR images" (without quotes) yields several results including this one.

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/31659-ocr-for-imported-pictures/

 

Hi, Thank you for your reply.

I've seen this. My problem is that this describes that it does it, but not how it can work for me, how should I setup anything, what I should do, etc.

Maybe I could just start by checking what I'm supposed to have/see?

Thx

 

 

Have you tried it? If you just take a screenshot of this page and put it into your account, then it will OCR that, and you can see what it does. The potential uses are probably too many to mention here, but a common one is to snap a photo of a receipt. Evernote takes care of the rest, and you can find out how much you spent on lunch yesterday (for example). 

 

There are some settings, but unless you are using multiple languages, they probably will not affect you. Here are the directions to adjust the settings.

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=85

 

Also, there are some limits. Very large / high dpi images will not be indexed. I do not know the exact limit, though. If you are interested, here are some limits I do know about regarding Evernote accounts. As soon as I figure out the image size limit, I'll post something here. Unless you are a professional photographer uploading raw images, though, you probably will not run into issues. 

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=169

[Laurent CHARLES 4]

(...)

I find some talks on the net about potential OCR of image notes (e.g. scans, written notes on tablets, etc.)

I could not find out if this feature is really available, and if so, how to enable it.

Can anyone provide more information?

How to do it?

(...)

Searching the board on "OCR images" (without quotes) yields several results including this one.

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/31659-ocr-for-imported-pictures/

 

Hi, Thank you for your reply.

I've seen this. My problem is that this describes that it does it, but not how it can work for me, how should I setup anything, what I should do, etc.

Maybe I could just start by checking what I'm supposed to have/see?

Thx

 

Have you tried it? If you just take a screenshot of this page and put it into your account, then it will OCR that, and you can see what it does. The potential uses are probably too many to mention here, but a common one is to snap a photo of a receipt. Evernote takes care of the rest, and you can find out how much you spent on lunch yesterday (for example). 

 

There are some settings, but unless you are using multiple languages, they probably will not affect you. Here are the directions to adjust the settings.

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=85

 

Also, there are some limits. Very large / high dpi images will not be indexed. I do not know the exact limit, though. If you are interested, here are some limits I do know about regarding Evernote accounts. As soon as I figure out the image size limit, I'll post something here. Unless you are a professional photographer uploading raw images, though, you probably will not run into issues. 

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=169

 

Hi,

 

I've done what you propose and indeed it works. It just takes time (no idea how much time - I do not have a paid account) to have it indexed, and unless I've missed it, you can not know if the document is OCRed or not yet.

It does not work well with handwritten notes though (with my handwriting...). I'm using livescribe wifi pen.

 

Thank you for your help.

 

NB: I use multiple languages.

 

-- Laurent

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

(...)

I find some talks on the net about potential OCR of image notes (e.g. scans, written notes on tablets, etc.)

I could not find out if this feature is really available, and if so, how to enable it.

Can anyone provide more information?

How to do it?

(...)

Searching the board on "OCR images" (without quotes) yields several results including this one.

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/31659-ocr-for-imported-pictures/

Hi, Thank you for your reply.

I've seen this. My problem is that this describes that it does it, but not how it can work for me, how should I setup anything, what I should do, etc.

Maybe I could just start by checking what I'm supposed to have/see?

Thx

 

Have you tried it? If you just take a screenshot of this page and put it into your account, then it will OCR that, and you can see what it does. The potential uses are probably too many to mention here, but a common one is to snap a photo of a receipt. Evernote takes care of the rest, and you can find out how much you spent on lunch yesterday (for example). 

 

There are some settings, but unless you are using multiple languages, they probably will not affect you. Here are the directions to adjust the settings.

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=85

 

Also, there are some limits. Very large / high dpi images will not be indexed. I do not know the exact limit, though. If you are interested, here are some limits I do know about regarding Evernote accounts. As soon as I figure out the image size limit, I'll post something here. Unless you are a professional photographer uploading raw images, though, you probably will not run into issues. 

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=169

Hi,

 

I've done what you propose and indeed it works. It just takes time (no idea how much time - I do not have a paid account) to have it indexed, and unless I've missed it, you can not know if the document is OCRed or not yet.

It does not work well with handwritten notes though (with my handwriting...). I'm using livescribe wifi pen.

 

Thank you for your help.

 

NB: I use multiple languages.

 

-- Laurent

I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I have no idea if Free accounts OCR images. I guess they do, but the Evernote website is... confusing at best. I'll have to test it out to see.

http://evernote.com/premium/index2.php?utm_expid=6007595-7.uDDJlX6mRVWCY_Zl7Fz3jQ.1&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3D%26esrc%3Ds%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D1%26ved%3D0CC0QFjAA%26url%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fevernote.com%2Fpremium%2F%26ei%3DkMT_UYXUE4_C9QSYtoH4DA%26usg%3DAFQjCNHP9IBUyrA9tQoyDScERkEF95ZbFQ%26bvm%3Dbv.50165853%2Cd.eWU

As far as handwriting goes, I have had no luck at all. And, by no luck, I mean that. Occasionally, it seems to catch a number here or there, but more often than not, it sees an "l" as a "1." I don't remember it ever (in 5 years of using it) correctly reading a word I have written. Apparently, others have had better luck with it. I guess your mileage may vary. I have terrible handwriting, so I guess I am not surprised at Evernote's inability to read it.

With multiple languages, you'll want to adjust your settings. Here are directions.

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=85

[Laurent CHARLES 4]

Hi,

 

A short note to summarize my experience on the topic, if it helps anyone.

 

I use/have:

- A free Evernote account

- A Mac with Evernote client

- A Livescribe Wifi smartpen

- Android tablet and smartphone with evernote client.

- French (60%) and English (40%) notes

 

I did:

- Connect my smartpen to my evernote account

- Setup recognition following http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=85

 

I get:

- Excellent indexing and searching for text notes or text in PDF notes/attachments.

- Pretty good indexing on automatic OCR of scanned images with electronic text or images embedded in PDF notes with text

- Average recognition and OCR/indexing of handwritten notes (smartpen or scans) only if slowly written in clear and capital letters

- Average time to have OCR and indexing (due to free account)

 

What does not work for me:

- No OCR and text storage of images/PDF. OCR is just for indexing.

- No usable recognition and OCR of handwritten notes with the smartpen or scans of handwritten papers (even if I do my best to use my slow, old and nice school handwriting)

- No information whether note is indexed or not.

 

My main regret is the the poor handwriting recognition. I have seen better tools doing the job.

My workaround so far is to manually index my notes with tags.

 

Cheers

-- Laurent

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Hi,

 

A short note to summarize my experience on the topic, if it helps anyone.

 

I use/have:

- A free Evernote account

- A Mac with Evernote client

- A Livescribe Wifi smartpen

- Android tablet and smartphone with evernote client.

- French (60%) and English (40%) notes

 

I did:

- Connect my smartpen to my evernote account

- Setup recognition following http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=85

 

I get:

- Excellent indexing and searching for text notes or text in PDF notes/attachments.

- Pretty good indexing on automatic OCR of scanned images with electronic text or images embedded in PDF notes with text

- Average recognition and OCR/indexing of handwritten notes (smartpen or scans) only if slowly written in clear and capital letters

- Average time to have OCR and indexing (due to free account)

 

What does not work for me:

- No OCR and text storage of images/PDF. OCR is just for indexing.

- No usable recognition and OCR of handwritten notes with the smartpen or scans of handwritten papers (even if I do my best to use my slow, old and nice school handwriting)

- No information whether note is indexed or not.

 

My main regret is the the poor handwriting recognition. I have seen better tools doing the job.

My workaround so far is to manually index my notes with tags.

 

Cheers

-- Laurent

 

Hi. Here is some information on the OCR. It is not exactly what you are looking for, but gives you some idea of what is happening in the background. Just let your eyes glaze over the technobabble.

http://blog.evernote.com/tech/2013/07/18/how-evernotes-image-recognition-works/

 

One thing you may need to do is adjust your language recognition settings.

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=85

 

However, I personally have had no luck at all with handwriting recognition. I think it is just incapable of recognizing anything that I write. Your mileage may vary. Informative titles, a tagging system, and maybe the addition of keywords into notes is probably the best approach.

[KBrooks 0]

Reviving this old thread because it keeps coming up in a search on receipts.

 

 

 

 The potential uses are probably too many to mention here, but a common one is to snap a photo of a receipt. Evernote takes care of the rest, and you can find out how much you spent on lunch yesterday (for example). 

 

 

 

So I just got Evernote Premium for exactly this purpose -- to scan in a receipt (via iPhone with Evernote's app or Scanner Pro) and then copy/paste the amount and possibly other key details to put in a tax spreadsheet. Problem is, I can't copy/paste, on neither the computer or web-based app. A search using terms such as the total or name of store will work, but I can't highlight any text on individual receipts.

 

Is this possible or did I just waste $5?

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Reviving this old thread because it keeps coming up in a search on receipts.

 

The potential uses are probably too many to mention here, but a common one is to snap a photo of a receipt. Evernote takes care of the rest, and you can find out how much you spent on lunch yesterday (for example).

 

So I just got Evernote Premium for exactly this purpose -- to scan in a receipt (via iPhone with Evernote's app or Scanner Pro) and then copy/paste the amount and possibly other key details to put in a tax spreadsheet. Problem is, I can't copy/paste, on neither the computer or web-based app. A search using terms such as the total or name of store will work, but I can't highlight any text on individual receipts.

 

Is this possible or did I just waste $5?

Evernote does not convert text in images to actual text that is added to the body of the note for copy/pasting. In fact, the OCR'ing of images produces a tree of possibilities rather than a word for word conversion. IOW, an image with the word 'house' may show up when searching for 'horse'. If you export the notes to enex, I think you can pull the text. But that's going to be more work than simply manually adding the figures.

As to whether or not you think you "wasted" $5, premium offers many advantages. And, one does not even need to have a premium account to index images...that's done for free accounts as well and has for many years.

[lgpiper 6]

Sorry, I'm not getting this at all. I've uploaded a picture of a business card, and I can't search for content on the picture. I also can't see any evidence of OCR information in an exported .enex file. I have my language preferences set to English only. So what am I missing? Is the image required to be of a certain resolution before EN will OCR it? My image is admittedly not of high quality, but the text on it is clearly readable. Why does't OCR work for me? FWIW, I am a premium user, not that that is supposed to matter. 

 

thanks,

   larry p

[CalS 5,280]

Sometimes it takes a while, but it shouldn't take that long.  In any case, try selecting the note and click on Help while holding the Ctrl key.  Then select Fix Current Note from the menu.  That should force the OCR. 

 

Side bar, you can check if the OCR is completed by pressing the Info icon and viewing the Attachment Status field.

[RobertJSawyer 167]

Click on the "Info" button for the note.  Near the bottom you should see Attachment Status.  If it doesn't (yet) say, "All Attachments have been indexed," then Evernote's servers haven't yet performed OCR on your image.

[lgpiper 6]

Sometimes it takes a while, but it shouldn't take that long.  In any case, try selecting the note and click on Help while holding the Ctrl key.  Then select Fix Current Note from the menu.  That should force the OCR. 

 

Side bar, you can check if the OCR is completed by pressing the Info icon and viewing the Attachment Status field.

I've tried all those things. The attachments info says "all attachments have been indexed". I posted the picture months ago, so waiting in the queue shouldn't be an issue. I can see that _some_ OCR is working because EN is able to index things in some .pdfs I've uploaded. So, I'll just try again one of these days with a higher quality image to see if that helps. It's weird that a dumb-phone image of easily legible printed text is baffling EN where other reporters claim it can read bad handwriting. 

[CalS 5,280]

Last thought I would have is to be sure the note is in a synced notebook.

[lgpiper 6]

Yup, it's all synced properly. I tried taking another picture with a much better camera. But somehow, I ended up with a worse image. Looks like I'll have to try again. 

[lgpiper 6]

Ok, I did a slightly better picture and it worked, sort of. Part of the problem was that I expected too much. The card said the company involved was "A PSI Company". It couldn't find that full phrase. But it did find PSI, Company, and several other things that were on the card. So, the OCR does work, sort of. The better the resolution of the picture, the better it works.