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Optical Character Recognition or OCR software can save you a lot of keystrokes transcribing printed text from documents, articles, books, or letters, into editable text on your computer.

The way that OCR software works is to analyze text rendered as a graphic image -- often from a scanned page, but also from faxes or images downloaded from the Internet -- and convert the resulting data into edible text that you can use in a word processor or text editor.

The usual graphics format for OCR work is a 200 dpi TIFF graphic, which most bitmap (painting) graphics programs can export, and fax software like GlobalFax can also save messages as. Indeed, some fax software includes an OCR module.

Most scanners come bundled with some sort of OCR software -- usually a " light" version of one of the full-featured OCR programs. These will do the job for vocational OCR work, but if you plan to do a lot of OCR transcription, you will probably thank yourself for getting a more capable OCR application, about which more below.

"Garbage-in, garbage-out" was never more truth than when applied to OCR. The better and cleaner your original image, the less correcting and cleaning up you'll have to do with the OCR recognized text. A clear copy at about the equivalent of the normal 10-12. text size at 200 or 300 dpi will be ideal. However, if necessary, OCR software will usually produce usable, albeit messy and full of errors, text even from poor original.

If you are scanning in an image for OCR purposes, go for high contrast and lightness. Some OCR programs have a special setting for recognizing documents produced by dot-matrix printers. If your OCR program doesn't, you can sometimes improve OCR quality of recognition from dot matrix text by photocopying the original (which will "connect" the tiny dots of the matrix) and then scan the photocopy.

Currently available OCR solutions for the Mac include:

OmniPage Pro 8.01

The longest-standing and best-known OCR application for the Mac, OmniPage Pro can handle multiple columns, inset text boxes, color art, and fonts in multiple sizes, colors and styles. OmniPage Pro's AutoOCR Toolbar steps you through the OCR process with the push of a single button.

ScanSoft stopped upgrading OmniPage Pro for the Mac in 1999. and despite the fact that there has been no new development of the application for three years, it sells for a hefty $499.99. However, frozen in development and expensive notwithstanding, in my experience OmniPage Pro performs well.

System Requirements
Power Macintosh or greater (Will not run on 68K Macs)
System 7.5 or later
10 MB free RAM
25 MB free hard disk space
640x480 pixel resolution or better

For more information, visit:
http://www.caere.com/products/omnipage/pro/mac.asp

Readiris Pro 6.0

U.K. software developer I.R.I.S. also offers Mac OCR software. Like OmniPage Pro, Readiris Pro 6 for Mac OS converts printed documents such as letters, faxes, magazine articles, columns in a newspaper, etc. into editable text files.

Features include an easy-to-use toolbar that lets you scan and recognize text at the touch of a button. Each function is easily identified by a tooltip. The program can also open documents saved in JPEG and recognize documents scanned in colour, including text on colour backgrounds and saves pictures in colour. Automatic table recognition detects and reads tables, recreates table objects in Excel, in Word and in RTF files. Improved recognition of "ungridded" tables. Readiris supports all scanners that use Photoshop plug-in technology.

System Requirements
- A Mac OS Computer
- 25 MB free disk space
- 32 MB free RAM
- Mac OS 8.5 with Quicktime 4.0 installed

Price: $79.99

For more information, visit:
http://www.irislink.be/opt/uk/products/readiris/pc/index.html

ABBYY FineReader 5 Pro

This OCR software was co-developed by Russian software firm ABBEYY and Sound & Vision, and is designed from the ground up as a Macintosh application with features that fully leverage the strengths of the Mac platform.

The software's extensive controls, including toolbars, icons and dialog boxes, are designed to work seamlessly with the Mac OS Appearance Manager. The application utilizes Apple Speech to enable a voice-read-back tool that helps users to easily proof read recognition results.

FineReader also takes advantage of Mac OS technologies such as QuickTime, Drag-and-Drop, and Navigation Service. In addition, the program supports AppleScript, enabling users to run the application from scripts, which can be written to automate repetitive tasks, such as recognizing fax files as soon as they are received.

The software comes as Try & Buy version, that may be purchased online via credit card by completing the simple wizard from within the application.

Unregistered copies will work as a full-function for 30 launches and then switch to save-disabled.  

System requirements:
• Mac OS 8.6 or higher
• QuickTime 4.0 or later
• 64 MB RAM  

ABBYY FineReader 5 Pro sells for $129.00 demoware  

For more information, visit:
http://www.macfinereader.com/