ReadIris Pro OCR Software

Albert W. Starkweather, Philatelic Communicator

In his articles on digital references and studies, Francis Adams discusses useful software tools — optical character recognition (OCR) and photo editing. There are great pieces of software available for both Macintosh and Windows computers, one moderately priced, that should satisfy your OCR needs.

ReadIris Pro for OCR

Unless one is a master typist or has access to one, optical character recognition is the alternative to converting printed documents into editable text. Most scanners come with some bundled version of OCR software; most is inferior. When Xerox TextBridge Pro was no longer developed for Macintosh, I tested several programs and finally settled on ReadIris Pro 11 (www.irislink.com) because of its ease of use, reliability, and competitive pricing.

ReadIris works seamlessly with my scanner and Microsoft Word, handling most good source material automatically. Good means printed text that is printed in black on a white background in a traditional font, such as Times. Gray or colored type and that on non-white backgrounds works less successfully, as does sans serif or extremely stylized fonts.

Read Iris window

Setting up the software is extremely easy, mostly involving selecting your scanner and target application from drop-down lists — an Epson Perfection scanner and MS Word in my case. Converting a document involves turning on the scanner, placing a document on its bed, and clicking acquire on the ReadIris screen. The document is then scanned, recognized, and then copied and pasted into the word processing program. With good source material accuracy is nearly 100 percent.

There is a more interactive approach to problematical material, which allows the user to define areas to be scanned, to train recognition of characters the program does not recognize, and to set other customized options. The automated process takes only seconds, while the interactive method may take up to several minutes, depending on the number of characters that are not recognized. Similar documents will be processed much more quickly once training information is saved.

No matter which approach is used, it is very important to proofread carefully once the text is imported.

Street price is about $110, a whopping $390 less than its leading competitor, OmniPage Pro 16.

Getting Text into your Computer

Fran Adams

Preparation of text for use in Digital Philatelic Studies is a must. With prepared text as your building blocks, the assembly of your work will go a lot smoother and result in a much more presentable DPS.

Word Entry

Most text is put into digital format by typing it into a computer using a word processing program like Microsoft (MS) Word. There are two additional ways to get your text into digital format: scanning typewritten or printed pages and subsequently using optical character recognition (OCR) software to convert the scan into text or by dictation using voice recognition software.

We’ll stick with a word processing program, ‘MS Word’ for this exercise, as that’s what most people will be using. Three major reasons for using word processors are their spelling, thesaurus and grammar checking functions. Once you have your text entered into your word processor, use these tools to ensure your text is as correct as you can manage.

Word Tools

If your word processing program doesn’t know a specific word, look it up in a dictionary before pressing the ‘add to dictionary’ button. Once you’ve added a misspelled word, it will continue to accept the misspelling until you edit the ‘user dictionary’ of your program.

In addition to spell check, the thesaurus can be a very effective tool in your arsenal of word processing functions. Ever get stuck for just the right word? Enter a word you might use and see what turns up – it’s often the word you had on the tip of your tongue but couldn’t remember.

Grammar checking is another standard function that may prove valuable. Leaving grammar check active during your text input will point out things the computer believes may be wrong word usage. You can ignore it of course, but it often makes suggestions you should think about.

Text should be double-checked for spelling or grammar mistakes and saved in the proper format – before being inserted into the study.

Using some of the other word processing tools such as grade level analysis, word count, etc. could be interesting, but in the short term, we’ll stick with the big three.

Invisible Formatting Code

Each program uses ‘formatting code’ embedded in the document to make your text display the way you want it to – that’s formatting. The information you enter is not simply text, but rather text with invisible ‘formatting code’ attached that you normally don’t see or think about. You’ll only see some of it if the ‘Show Code’ function is turned on in your word processor.

MS Word is notorious for including formatting information when text is cut from a Word document and pasted into a document generated by another application such as PowerPoint. The invisible formatting code is to blame.

Saving the file in text only format

To prevent this aggravation, save the document in a ‘Text Only’ format (.txt). This action will strip all the invisible formatting code from the text and leave only the words. Cutting and pasting sections of text from a .txt file allows it to be formatted by the other program, PowerPoint in this instance, and introduces no surprises to figure out or frustrate us.

Enter all your text, spell and grammar check it, and then save it as a ‘Text Only’ file. Formatting the text will take place in the PowerPoint template and the final document.

Choosing a Scanner

Peter Aiken

Many stamp collectors and dealers are interested in creating digital images of their stamps, covers, and other philatelic material. There are many uses for these images, including computerized databases, Web pages, and on-line auction listings. The process of creating a digital image from a paper document is called scanning. The procedure is not all that difficult, but it can be a bit confusing to the newcomer. I have gathered some basic information to help you get started creating digital images of your stamps and covers.

Selecting a Scanner

If you do not already own a scanner, the information in this section will help you select one that is suited to your needs. I do not recommend specific models because it is impossible for me to keep up with the constant introduction of new units. I suggest that you use this information to determine the type of scanner you want and the specifications you need, and then go shopping.

Types of Scanners

Scanners come in a variety of configurations. The type you should consider depends on both your planned scanning needs and your budget.

• Drum scanners. This type of scanner provides the highest level of image quality. They are typically found at professional printing businesses. In a drum scanner, the original is attached to a cylindrical drum and rotated past the sensing elements. These scanners are very expensive, with capabilities that go well beyond the needs of desktop scanning.
• Flatbed scanners. This type of scanner provides a flat glass surface onto which the original is placed. The illumination and sensing elements move under the glass to scan the image. Flatbed scanners are available in a wide range of sizes, prices, and capabilities. Some flatbeds offer a transparency scanning adapter as an option.
• Single sheet scanners. This type of scanner is designed for single sheets of paper. You insert one edge of the paper in a slot and the scanner grabs it, feeds it past the sensing array, and passes it out the other side. Some single sheet scanners are even integrated into keyboards. Such scanners were originally designed for digitizing documents and images for archiving, and many models are not suitable for creating high-quality images.
• Sheet-fed scanners. These scanners take a stack of pages and scan them in sequence while you get coffee. Some even do duplex (2 sided) scans. They are very useful in some situations but not much use to the philatelist.
• Photo scanners. This type of scanner is designed to scan snapshots up to approximately 4´6 inches in size. Some are separate desktop units, others install directly into a computer much like a diskette drive.
• Hand scanners. This type of scanner requires the user to manually scan an image. Hand scanners look something like an overgrown mouse. To scan, you manually drag the unit over the original document. Handheld scanners are suitable only for small originals that are no wider than the scanner itself. In theory, most hand scanners permit you to scan a wide original in two or more passes and “stitch” the scans together into a final image. This, however, never works as well as the manufacturers claim.
• Slide scanners. This type of scanner is designed for scanning slides (transparencies) rather than opaque originals, such as photographic prints. While rarely relevant for scanning philatelic material, a dedicated slide scanner is the best choice for scanning slides. Some flatbed scanners come with transparency adapters but they do not provide top quality results, particularly with small slides such as 35mm. Slide scanners have very high resolution, typically a minimum of 2400 dpi, required for getting all the details out of your slides. Many slide scanners also have the ability to scan color negatives and to convert the negative image to a positive image.

For philatelic purposes, a flatbed scanner is undoubtedly the most versatile. You can scan anything from a single stamp to an entire stockbook or album page. A hand scanner may be a viable alternative, particularly if your budget is tight, although the prices of flatbed scanners are so low that this is rarely a real consideration. The width limitation of hand scanners does not matter so much for stamps and covers. I have also seen single sheet scanners and photo scanners used successfully for philatelic purposes, although they require that the item being scanned be sandwiched between clear plastic sheets for feeding into the scanner.