 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Mac Forum / Country Specific / Australian Mac Group / September 2004hand scanning or copying?
Does anyone know of a device which one can take to a library and copy text electronically or scan it electronically, store it in the device and then put it into the computer later for editing in a document? > Does anyone know of a device which one can take to a library and copy > text electronically or scan it electronically, store it in the device > and then put it into the computer later for editing in a document? I'm guessing you don't have a powerbook. My Canon scanner is powered from USB, and is very similar size to my powerbook, meaning I can scan pretty much anywhere. The two of them fit in a standard PC laptop case, since together they are similar in size to one of those PC laptops! :) Jeff Yep, sure do - it is called a digital camera - take a snap of the what you want, then download the pic to your computer when you get home - if you need to edit it etc then just run it though a text reading app and bobs your uncle David - who uses this regularly > Does anyone know of a device which one can take to a library and copy > text electronically or scan it electronically, store it in the device > and then put it into the computer later for editing in a document?  SignatureIf we're not supposed to eat animals, why are they made out of meat? David, Which text reading app do you use? M Geez, you got me there - haven't had to convert any docs to text for years and years now - my main use for pics with the digital camera has been to copy a page from a text to send to a client, or to send copies of my DL, passport, degree, credit card etc to various people and firms. Have also used it to copy diagrams from books at the library (200km to borrow and return) - last lot I did were layouts for cattle yards, and some law stuff for a friend. Trying to remember the name of the pic to text app, but memory is failing me at the moment - will have a browse through my CDs and that might refresh the grey cells. David > David, > > Which text reading app do you use? > > M SignatureIf we're not supposed to eat animals, why are they made out of meat? > Trying to remember the name of the pic to text app, but memory is > failing me at the moment - will have a browse through my CDs and that > might refresh the grey cells. I ave also experimented with digital camera to OCR. You have to have a good image of the page to start with and convert it to a 300dpi tiff image so that Omnipage or similar will read it. Not very successful in terms of saving time, but good for whole page graphic images. Rifty SignatureAcademic and Computing Help http://rifty.net > > Trying to remember the name of the pic to text app, but memory is > > failing me at the moment - will have a browse through my CDs and that [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Rifty I've been following this post with interest, waiting for the simple solution to appear: how about scanning photocopies? Works for me (using Omnipage) provided it's a decent copy, the rest is down to typeface style, print quality, and crap scribbled on the page by student morons. All this will pose an identical issue regardless of your method of capture - even if you design a megasatellite to take those digital pictures. Nikki ... and of course you only need to turn it into text if you want to cut and paste - if just to read or you can type copy the bits you want to quote, then leave it as photographed. David > > > Trying to remember the name of the pic to text app, but memory is > > > failing me at the moment - will have a browse through my CDs and that [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > Nikki SignatureIf we're not supposed to eat animals, why are they made out of meat? > > I have also experimented with digital camera to OCR. You have to have a > > good image of the page to start with and convert it to a 300dpi tiff > > image so that Omnipage or similar will read it. Not very successful in > > terms of saving time, but good for whole page graphic images. > I've been following this post with interest, waiting for the simple > solution to appear: how about scanning photocopies? Well, that would be OK if you had access to a photocopier. But I work in countries where the documents I use are often in hard copy and no photocopying is easily available. (It might be on another floor where I can't take the original or under the control of someone who isn't inclined to be cooperative. Or broken.) In that case, the digital camera can work. The other benefit of the digital camera here is that the document is often in a large heavy book, and putting it on a photocopier for OCR purposes just doesn't work, for obvious reasons. Also, the photocopier can add to the scan problems if it runs characters together. Photographing it carefully, even at comparatively low res, can sometimes yield better results. > Works for me (using Omnipage) provided it's a decent copy, the rest is > down to typeface style, print quality, and crap scribbled on the page > by student morons. All this will pose an identical issue regardless of > your method of capture - even if you design a megasatellite to take > those digital pictures. You don't have to take them at that high a resolution to begin with. If the image is good enough at lower res, you can feed to a laptop in that formay and then step it up to 300 later. Mind you, this is cumbersome and you really have to want an OCR version to go through with the various steps involved. For a non-touch-typist, it can be. Denis Wright > > > I have also experimented with digital camera to OCR. You have to have a > > > good image of the page to start with and convert it to a 300dpi tiff [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] > > Denis Wright OK, I accept that point. Mea culpa. Problem is: I've been hanging around too many universities - which fund themselves on photocopying these days and there's a machine behind every shelf. Guess what I was saying is I'm surprised how well photocopies will scan. I'm using Omnipage Pro. Wish I could afford that good a camera! Nikki One big problem with photocopying books (yep, I went to Uni too) is that you either have to break the books spine or put up with distorted test at the spine edge of the page - NBG for OCRing David ... The other benefit of the > > digital camera here is that the document is often in a large heavy > > book, and putting it on a photocopier for OCR purposes just doesn't > > work, for obvious reasons. Also, the photocopier can add to the scan > > problems if it runs characters together. Photographing it carefully, > > even at comparatively low res, can sometimes yield better results. > One big problem with photocopying books (yep, I went to Uni too) is that > you either have to break the books spine or put up with distorted test > at the spine edge of the page - NBG for OCRing ...which is of course exactly where the camera has an advantage. Rifty SignatureAcademic and Computing Help http://rifty.net |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.