scanner programs?

http://www.tryneat.com/site/tryneat/home.html

Neat.com looks awesome...but I have a scanner, HP laserjet 3055 printer/scanner and I want to scan things AND Then be able to search them

Like find reciepts and then search these scans to find when/what I paid for a new mouse. etc. and I need to be able to search all the scans I have.

Is there software for this? I do not want to spend money on a scanner when I already have one, but I want something to help me be more organized

 

Your HP printer/scanner should have come with the scanner software. If you don't have the disc, you can download the drivers from HP's website. Just go to their support section and look up your printer model and you should see the full software needed to use the scanner. Unfortunately it is bundled with bloatware, but you can uninstall them afterwards.

 

I've got the HP ScanJet G4050. The HP software does have an OCR capability but I've never used it. You'd use it to create a text or word document. How you'd go about doing the rest of what you're asking would take intervention on your part.

I've never used this one either http://majorgeeks.com/PaperScan_Free_d6940.html but it has an OCR engine as well.

Then there's http://majorgeeks.com/VueScan_d6052.html which I have used but not for OCR much.The OCR I did try to use it for was a hand written note and it actually did a decent job of detecting the words, but being hand written it didn't exactly get it all 100% correct. Again, OCR would just detect the text and you'd have to intervene to create a searchable document/database.

 

Check your scanner software for OCR capability; using OCR will result in a text document, rather than a scanned image.

However, not all OCR-capable scanner software create layouts that are in any way similar to the original paper document.

For really professional results you should use professional software like Adobe Acrobat.

 

Caveat: I work with PDF files in the main. I do scan other documents occasionaly that I need to include in emails such as reciepts.

I use an HP flatbed printer/scanner, certainly not top of the line, but it does passable work. It came with a suite of software that will be enough for most users. Hard core scanners generally use much better equipment. For most operations, read low volume, a flatbed scanner is preferable to a feed machine. I don't attempt to do OCR with any HP software.


Adobe Acrobat will add an *OCR layer (invisible) to scanned PDF documents. The searchability and copy paste results will depend on the quality of the initial scan. In my experience scanning at 300 DPI will allow for decent OCR output. HP software allows for saving as PDF.

ScanKromsator and ScanTailor are the software choices of hard core ebook scanners, with ScanKromsator being the consensus best. It has Russian Documnentation however.

I use the paid CVista PdfCompressor, in addition to Adobe Pro, because it has compression capabilty in addition to decent OCR and a way to encrypt its output which removes any previous PDF encryption. Compression is not really desirable or necessary these days with the large capacity drives and broadband internet connections but I keep it for its other functions...

That said, there are many free OCR programs out there that a search engine will turn up. It comes down to what you prefer, what you are comfortable using. I suggest you download some of the free ones and test drive them.

* this invisible OCR layer will be apparent to you if run the PDF thru an editor like Foxit PDF Editor.