Program for editing scanned documents: which one is better?

In the course of working with the documentation and databases, there are many significant problems. And it's not about the mass of errors that can be found in documents that require the creation of a new fix file, but in simple human sloth. In principle, laziness has always been the engine of progress, because people always want to do everything quickly to get rid of unnecessary worries, and in order to have a rest it is possible as much as possible, it is necessary to do the work also qualitatively. In this case, the question is that many documents for complete inclusion in any database or general registry require a new set of text, and this begins not just to tire, but to bother. For such a case, there is a scanner and a program for editing scanned documents.

What does the scanner do?

In general, a scanner is a device that transfers text from a printed document (newspaper, magazine, book, etc.) to a computer, it does it in the form of an image. Some devices have special programs that control the scanning process, and it is possible to select even the format into which the source code is converted. In the standard case, this is actually just a snapshot of some document, editing of which is impossible because the characters can not be recognized.

What can I do then?

You can freely manage the received document, editing and modifying all or part of the text as a whole, only if you use a specialized program for editing scanned documents. These utilities are engaged in recognizing the image and translating them into text that can be processed and edited. There are many programs of this kind, and each of them has its own nuances.

Good old ABBYY FineReader

Perhaps the most common program for editing scanned documents with the proud name of ABBYY FineReader is a whole package of editors that allows you to perform all sorts of manipulations with the scanned image. The high result of the work is achieved due to the fact that the program can recognize a document of any quality (even if you just took a photo on a mobile phone camera), and also because of the ability to recognize multi-level files that contain tables, drawings and other small details. In this case, during the recognition process, you can set the language, which helps ABBYY FineReader to select the correct comparison symbols, so that the program produces the text with the least amount of errors.

Among other things, this editor perfectly copes with PDF documents. Thus, if you have a file of this format, then editing of scanned PDF documents will take place quickly and without unnecessary effort. The external interface itself is intuitive and does not require additional skills, such accessibility for the user of any level and influenced its popularization. And after recognition, you can compare the result and correct the flaws made by the program, right in the editor's menu. The result itself is saved as a separate document, which you can change as you like.

The trick of working with PDF-format

Editing scanned documents is monotone, and if the source is a PDF file, then there are tricks. The fact is that the editor of the form FineReader is very good in this business, but its cost often repels the user and forces you to look for analogues. Therefore, there are a number of separate utilities that allow you to produce highly specialized work aimed at PDF files.

PDFill PDF Tools

PDFill PDF Tools - a free program for editing scanned documents with a PDF extension. It contains a number of additional options, such as merging or disconnecting documents, editing or completely deleting content, converting a PDF file into images and vice versa. Also here you can create lists, edit the built-in images, align text and many other settings that are familiar to any user of Microsoft Word or its analogues. This program is absolutely free and is designed for any level of use (private, corporate, etc.). The interface here, of course, is not the most friendly, but the set of functions and debugging all makes up with a vengeance. But there is no Russian-language menu yet, so if it did not work out with the English, you'll have to tinker with the dictionary.

Free PDF Editor

Another free utility that allows you to edit PDF files. There is a more understandable and user-friendly interface. And the program is supported by many operating systems, the only drawback is that you can not edit a finished document. But you can scan directly into this program, and then work at full speed. However, it is necessary to tinker with the creation of a virtual printer, because otherwise such a program for editing scanned documents simply will not work.

OCR editor

If you return to the beginning and talk about Free Analog FineReader, then there is a program for editing doc documents called OCR Form. A fairly useful utility, especially if you are working with several languages (there is support for over 20 most common languages). She does an excellent job of printing or documents of poor quality, but as for handwritten text, everything is not so smooth here. Of course, OCR can recognize such text, but the quality of this recognition still leaves much to be desired. As for the appearance, then many editors may envy him - everything is extremely simple: open the file and scan, then save in a suitable format - and deal with the end. The popularity of the utility is due to the possibility of self-learning, the so-called adaptive recognition system, which will allow recognition to be better and better with each new request.

Another of the OCR family

Editing scanned documents is a painstaking task, so it's not surprising that for a good result, some users are looking for other methods. In such cases, you can use one more utility - SimpleOCR. From the title it is clear that this application, which is similar to the previous one - OCR, but in a more simplified and perfect form. Here you can add words manually at the expense of the built-in editor, the ability to edit text directly in the utility window, as well as working with whole data packages (you can download several files at once, which will be recognized). But the appearance can be a little confusing, here it is necessary to read a little about the program itself and the principles of its work. Otherwise, instead of an excellent editor, you can get a useless program for editing scanned documents, which takes up space on your computer.

And if the document is a picture?

Sometimes, when you are editing scanned jpg-format documents, there is a need to select not text, namely a picture (diagram, table, graph, etc.). And here the question is completely different. After all, when recognizing the text, the task is set completely differently. Now we need not only to recognize the image, but also to bring it into an aesthetic appearance. For example, if you scan a schema from a book, you will see prints of ink from other sheets. To get rid of these "hindrances", you should resort to graphical editors.

One of these can be the good old Paint, but in a world where technological progress rules, the original positions in this matter are given to the good old Photoshop, because it is faster and more convenient. Editing scanned documents in "Photoshop" allows you to get rid of stains and "dirt", change the colors of drawings, vary their contrast and brightness with the help of sets of all sorts of filters. Besides, there are plenty of lessons for how to do this or that operation, that's why you do not need to be a "Photoshop genius" ", it's enough just to want.

There are many other editors you can use, as well as excellent online tools that allow you to recognize scanned text, even without recruiting any other specialized software. In general, any program for editing scanned documents has the right to life and to that you appreciate it.