ABBYY Award-winning OCR User Manual

Award-winning OCR:

over 70 top industry awards worldwide

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Optical Character Recognition Program

ABBYY FineReader

Version 6.0 User’s Guide

Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not bear any commitment on the part of ABBYY Software House. The software described in this document is supplied under a license agreement. The software may only be used or copied in strict accordance with the terms of the agreement. It is a breach of the "On legal protection of software and databases" law of the Russian Federation and of international law to copy the software onto any medium unless specifically allowed in the license agreement or nondisclosure agreements. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any from or by any means, electronic or other, for any purpose, without the express written permission of ABBYY Software House.

© ABBYY Software House, 2002. All rights reserved. © ParaType, Inc., 2001. Type 1 fonts are licensed from ParaType, Inc. ABBYY, BIT Software, FineReader, «fontain image transformation», Lingvo, Scan&Read, Scan&Translate, «one-button principle», «Your computer reads by itself» are registered trademarks of ABBYY; Try&Buy, DOCFLOW are trademarks of ABBYY Software House. Adobe

, Adobe Logo, Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) and Adobe Acrobat®are the registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. All other trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of their legal owners. P.O. Box 72, Moscow, 125015, Russia. ABBYY..

Contents

Chapter 1 Installing and Starting ABBYY FineReader

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Software and Hardware Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Installing ABBYY FineReader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Installation on a Network Server and on a Network Workstation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Starting ABBYY FineReader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Chapter 2 Quickstart

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

How to input a Document in less than a Minute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

The ABBYY FineReader Main Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

ABBYY FineReader Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Chapter 3 General Features of ABBYY FineReader

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

What is an OCR System? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

New Features of ABBYY FineReader 6.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Supported Document Saving Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Supported Image Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Chapter 4 Acquiring the Image

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Scanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Setting Scanning Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Tips on Brightness Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Scanning Multi-page Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Opening Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Scanning Dual Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Adding images of business cards to a batch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Working with The Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Page Numbering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Batch Image Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Chapter 5 Page Layout Analysis

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

General Information on Page Layout Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Block Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Automatic Page Layout Analysis Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Drawing and Editing Blocks Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Manual Table Layout Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Using Block Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

ABBYY FineReader 6.0 User’s Guide

Chapter 6 Recognition

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

General Information on Recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Recognition Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Source Text Print Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Other Recognition Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Background Recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Recognition with Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

How to Train a User Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

How to Edit a User Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

User Languages and Language Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

How to Create a New Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

How to Create a New Language Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Chapter 7 Checking and Editing Text

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Checking Text in ABBYY FineReader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Options for Checking and Editing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Adding and Deleting Words To/from the User Dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Editing Text in ABBYY FineReader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Editing Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Chapter 8 Saving into External Applications and Formats

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

General Information on Saving Recognized Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Text Saving Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Saving the Recognized Text in RTF and DOC Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Saving Recognized Text in PDF Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Saving Recognized Text in HTML Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Saving the Page Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Chapter 9 Working with Batches

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

General Information on Working with Batches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Creating a New Batch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Opening a Batch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Adding Images to A Batch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Batch Page Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Closing a batch page or the whole batch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Deleting a Batch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Full-text Search in Recognized Batch Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Chapter 10

Network Document Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Work with the Same Batch over A Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Group Work with the Same User Languages and Dictionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Group Work with Customized Dictionaries (Languages with Dictionary Support ONLY) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Hot Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

WELCOME!

Thank you for choosing ABBYY FineReader!

We all need to input text into our computers from time to time, whether it be newspaper/magazine articles, contracts, business letters, faxes, price lists, or questionnaires. For years there was only one way to input printed documents – you had to type them in from the keyboard. Remember the long hours you spent typing in text from one document or another? What a great thing it would have been had the computer been able to read the text by itself, straight from the sheet of paper.

Sometimes dreams do come true! FineReader Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software enables your computer and scanner to do just this - to read printed text by themselves.

But can’t the scanner do the job on its own?

No. The scanner only takes a photograph of the text and converts it into a set of black and white dots (an image file), which cannot be edited using word processing applications such as MS Word, WordPerfect, Word Pro, etc. What is needed instead is an OCR system that looks for symbols in each set of black and white dots, “recognizes” the letters in each symbol, and, finally, converts the image into text that text editors and desktop systems are able to deal with.

So now I can input documents into my computer automatically?

Yes, now you can input documents into your computer automatically, without having to retype them all out on your keyboard.

Enjoy!

ABBYY FineReader 6.0 User’s Guide

User’s Guide

The User’s Guide introduces you to the basics of using ABBYY FineReader. Each chapter starts with a short summary description and a list of the chapter’s contents.

Online Help

FineReader's online Help contains basic and advanced information on program features, settings and dialogs. Online Help is provided in HTML format and has been designed for quick and easy information retrieval.

Readme file

The Readme file contains the latest information on the software.

Technical Support

If, after having consulted both your documentation and the ABBYY website, you still require assistance, e-mail us at support@abbyy.com. Note that our technical support experts will need the following information from you to be able to deal with your enquiries:

●

The serial number of your copy of FineReader

●

Your scanner make and model

●

A general description of the problem and the full error message text (if you have encountered an error message)

●

Your Windows operating system version

●

Any other information you consider important.

Note: Some system information can be obtained by clicking on System Info in the About

ABBYY FineReader dialog (menu Help/About).

All licensed users of the current and previous versions of the application are entitled to free technical support.

This chapter deals with ABBYY FineReader installation procedures and related subjects, such as system requirements and workstation/network installation.

A special installation program carries out the set up of FineReader. Always use the diskette/CD-ROM supplied as part of your software package. Installation is not possible using copied files.

Chapter Contents:

● Software and hardware requirements

● Installing ABBYY FineReader

● Network server/workstation installation

● Starting ABBYY FineReader

Chapter 1

Installing and Starting ABBYY FineReader

ABBYY FineReader 6.0 User’s Guide

Software and Hardware Requirements

For ABBYY FineReader to function correctly your computer must meet the following system requirements:

1. PC with an Intel®Pentium®200 MHz processor or higher

2. Microsoft

Windows®XP, Microsoft®Windows®2000, Windows®NT®Workstation

4.0 with Service Pack 6 or greater, Windows

95/98/Me

3. 64 Mb (Windows XP/2000), 32 Mb (Windows Me/98/NT 4.0), 16 Mb (Windows 95) of RAM, plus 16 Mb of RAM of memory for each additional processor (in case of a multiprocessor system)

4. Microsoft

Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher (Microsoft®Internet Explorer 5.5 included on

the FineReader CD-ROM)

5. 90 Mbytes of free hard-disk space for minimal program installation

6. 70 Mbytes of free hard-disk space for the program operation

7. 100% Twain-compatible scanner, digital camera or fax-modem

8. CD-ROM drive

9. Mouse or other pointing device

10. VGA or other high-resolution monitor

Installing ABBYY FineReader

Installation options

Once the set-up program has run a system check, type in your name and select the folder you wish to install ABBYY FineReader in. The setup program will then display several installation options. Select the option of your choice.

● Typical (recommended) - all components are installed including all recognition languages,

a single interface language selected during installation.

● Custom installation - any number of program components may be installed (including all

available recognition languages).

Note: If you wish to use user dictionaries and patterns from a previously installed version of

FineReader, do not uninstall it prior to installing the new version. All existing user patterns and dictionaries will then be available for use in the latest version.

Installing ABBYY FineReader

If your software package contains both a CD-ROM and a diskette, proceed as follows:

1. Insert the Installation diskette into the floppy disk drive.

2. Insert the CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive.

3. Click the

Start button on the Taskbar and select the Settings/Control Panel item.

4. Double-click the

Add/Remove Programs icon.

5. Select the

Install/Uninstall tab and click the Install button.

6. Follow the installation instructions.

If your software package contains only a CD-ROM, proceed as follows:

1. Insert the CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive.

2. Click the

Start button on the Taskbar and select the Settings/Control Panel item.

3. Double-click the

Add/Remove Programs icon.

4. Select the

Install/Uninstall tab and click the Install button.

5. Follow the installation instructions.

Chapter 1 - Installing and Starting ABBYY FineReader

Note: An Installation Code is required to complete installation if one of following applies to your

computer: there is no 3.5" floppy disk drive present; installation is being carried out using non-original or corrupted media; applications have been installed that are in conflict with ABBYY FineReader. The

Installation Code can be obtained from ABBYY or one of its resellers, and is created from the Product ID (issued automatically by the installation program) and the serial number (printed on the registration

card). To obtain your

Installation Code, simply fill out the relevant form at www.abbyy.com. Alterna-

tively you can scan the completed registration card and e-mail it to us, or call the technical support number.

If you come across an error message, see the Readme.htm file for assistance (located on the ABBYY FineReader CD-ROM).

Installation on a Network Server

(System Administrators Only) Installation of the ABBYY FineReader 6.0 Corporate Edition on a network server can only be carried out by the system administrator. Proceed as follows:

● If your software package contains both a CD-ROM and floppy disk, insert the installation

floppy disk and run setup.exe from the FineReader CD-ROM with the /a command-line option.

● If your software package contains only a CD-ROM, run setup.exe from the FineReader

CD-ROM with the /a command-line option.

Additional licenses

Following installation on a network server, you will need to add serial numbers if FineReader is to be used by more than one user:

1. Run LicSetup.exe from the folder\program files\ABBYY FineReader 6.0 where ABBYY FineReader 6.0 Corporate Edition was installed. The

Add License dialog will be displayed.

2. Enter a new serial number and click the

Add button.

Note:

1. You cannot use logical drives created by the SUBST command.

2. If you choose "installation to a network", SP 6 and IE 5.5 will NOT be automatically installed on the server. If you choose any other installation method, SP 6 and IE 5.5 will be automatically installed on your system. To avoid any difficulties related to the absence of these components, the system administrator should check if both of these components are installed on the network station prior to installation. If they are not installed, the system should be updated before installing ABBYY FineReader.

3. Check before installation that all users have read-write access to the network folder named Users (this folder is automatically created during application installation and stores temporary files).

Installation on a Network Server and on a Network Workstation

ABBYY FineReader 6.0 User’s Guide

Installation on a Network Workstation

If ABBYY FineReader 6.0 Corporate Edition has been installed on a network server, the setup program can be run directly from the server. To install ABBYY FineReader 6.0 Corporate Edition on a workstation:

● Run Setup.exe from the network folder containing ABBYY FineReader Corporate Edition 6.0.

Follow the installation instructions.

Note:

1. You should have administrative rights to the workstation on which ABBYY FineReader is being installed.

2. If the message "Can't load FineReader. There is no free license." is displayed, check the number of additional licenses added in the Add License dialog, as well as the number of users currently working with FineReader.

3. For ABBYY FineReader 6.0 to function correctly, the user must have read-write access to the folder in which the batch is stored.

To start ABBYY FineReader:

● Select the ABBYY FineReader Professional 6.0 (Corporate Edition 6.0) item in the

Start/Programs menu.

Note: Make sure your scanner is connected to your computer, plugged-in, and turned on before you

start FineReader. If your scanner has yet to be installed, please consult the user guide supplied with the scanner for instructions on how to install it.

If you do not have a scanner, you can still recognize image files using FineReader (see the sample files located in the ABBYY FineReader/Demo folder).

Starting ABBYY FineReader

In this chapter you will learn how to input a document without having to know anything about the way in which ABBYY FineReader works! You will also learn which windows and toolbars are contained within FineReader.

If you already have experience of working with FineReader, you may wish to skip this chapter altogether and go directly to New features of ABBYY FineReader 6.0 in chapter 3.

Chapter Contents:

● How to input a document in less than a minute

● The ABBYY FineReader main window

● ABBYY FineReader toolbars

Chapter 2

Quick Start

ABBYY FineReader 6.0 User’s Guide

How to Input a Document in Less than a Minute

1. Turn on the scanner if it has a separate power source to your PC.

Note: Many scanner models have to be turned on before you turn on the computer.

2. Turn on the computer and start FineReader (

Start/Programs/ABBYY FineReader

Professional 6.0 or Corporate Edition 6.0). The FineReader main window will appear on

your screen.

3. Place the page you want read onto the scanner.

4. Click the arrow to the right of the Scan&Read button. Select the

Scan&Read Wizard item

in the local menu.

The

Scan&Read Wizard is a special scan&read/open&read mode

during which you are guided through each step of the scanning process. A sample image file is contained in the

Demo folder, which,

in turn, is located in the folder containing FineReader.

5. Follow the

Scan&Read Wizard instructions.

The document input process is made up of four steps: scanning, reading, spellcheck and saving the recognized text.

Once scanning is complete, a "photograph" of the source page will appear in the

Image window. The

application then asks you to set the recognition parameters. Once this has been done, it starts recognizing the image, analyzing its layout at the same time. Image areas already recognized are highlighted in blue.

Recognized text is displayed in the

Text window, where it can be checked and edited. Once you have

checked the document, the

Scan&Read Wizard will prompt you to either send the recognized text to

the application of your choice, save it to file, or go on processing more images.

The ABBYY FineReader Main Window

FineReader performs all document processing in batch mode. A batch is a folder containing images, recognized text files and other FineReader information files. Each scanned image is converted into a separate batch page. If there are several images in a single image file (for example, if you are dealing with a multipage TIFF), each file image will be converted into a separate batch page.

When you start FineReader for the first time, the default batch is opened. You can choose to work with the default batch or create a new batch of your own. See General Information on Working with Batches for more information.

Chapter 2 - Quickstart

You will see the FineReader main menu at the top of the FineReader Main window. The following four toolbars are displayed under the main menu: the

Standard, Formatting, Image Tools, and WizardBar

toolbars. You may show/hide any toolbar.

To show/hide a toolbar, click the

Toolbar item in the View menu or the local menu. Right-click any

toolbar to open the local menu. You will see the toolbar list, with the currently selected toolbars highlighted. Click the name of the toolbar you want shown/hidden.

At the bottom of the FineReader Main window you will find the status bar, which displays information on application status and the operations currently being performed, as well as brief information on menu items and buttons selected.

The Batch window is always displayed in the

Main window. Three more windows may also be dis-

played: the

Image, Zoom and Text windows.

The

Image, Zoom and Text windows are interconnected: when you double-click a certain image area

in the

Image window, the respective area is displayed in the Zoom window, and the pointer in the Text

window moved to the position clicked on (if text has already been recognized on the page).

To alter the on-screen windows arrangement:

● Select one of the following items: Batch Window >...; Image and Text Windows >...;

Zoom Window >.... in the View menu.

Main window Standard toolbar Formatting toolbar

Wizard Bar

provides tools for full text processing: Scanning, Recognition, Spellcheck and Saving

Text window

displays the recognized text for checking and editing

Image window

displays the scanned image for viewing and drawing blocks

Zoom window

displays the zoomed-in image of the text line you edit or part of an image you are working on

Image Tools toolbar Batch window

provides tools for drawing and displays the pages of the open editing blocks, zoom tools batch in one of two modes: and tool for editing images thumbnail (as now) or details

ABBYY FineReader 6.0 User’s Guide

To switch between windows:

● Press CTRL+TAB.

● Press ALT+1 to activate the Batch window.

● Press ALT+2 to activate the Image window.

● Press ALT+3 to activate the Text window.

Some recommended windows arrangements: Useful if/when:

Batch window on the left; Batch View: Thumbnails; …a batch contains only a small number of Image, Text and Zoom windows pages

Batch window at the top: Batch View: Details; …a batch contains a large number of pages Image, Text and Zoom windows

Batch window at the top; Batch View: Details; …you perform layout analysis Image and Zoom windows and recognition

Batch window at the top; Batch View: Details;…you edit the recognized text

Text and Zoom windows

There are four toolbars in FineReader: the Standard, Image Tools, Formatting and WizardBar toolbars. Using the toolbars is without doubt the most convenient way of accessing the application’s functions. However, the same functions can also be accessed via menus or hot keys. To find out what function a particular toolbar button has, just move the mouse pointer to it. The button's tooltip will then be displayed, and the status bar will also display additional button details.

The WizardBar toolbar

ABBYY FineReader Toolbars

The WizardBar toolbar buttons launch the main FineReader functions: Scanning, Reading, Checking and Saving the recognition results. The numbers on the buttons indicate the order in which the respective document input actions should be performed. You may perform each action separately or combine them into one by clicking the

Scan&Read Wizard button. In the latter case, the Scan&Read Wizard

will then perform the full document processing cycle automatically.

Each button features several function modes. Click the arrow to the right of the button and select the mode of your choice in the local menu. The button icon always displays the mode that was last selected. Click the button itself to run this mode again.

Chapter 2 - Quickstart

Scan&Read

Scan&Read Wizard - launchesScan&Read mode. FineReader guides you

through the document processing process and advises you on how best to obtain the desired result.

Scan&Read - starts scanning and reading a document using the current

options.

Scan&Read Multiple Images - scans and reads several consecutive images. Open&Read - opens and reads the images selected in the Open dialog.

1-Scan

Open Image - adds image(s) to the batch. Each added image is copied to

the batch folder.

Scan Image - scans an image. Scan Multiple Images - scans images continuously. Select the Stop Scanning item in the File menu to bring scanning to a stop. Options - opens the Scan/Open Image tab (Options dialog), to allow

scanning options to be set etc.

2-Read

Read - reads the open batch page. Read All - reads all unrecognized batch pages. Options - opens the Recognition tab (Options dialog) to allow document

recognition options to be set.

3-Check Spelling

Check Spelling - searches the text for misspelt and uncertain words (i.e.

ones containing uncertainly recognized characters).

Options - opens the Check Spelling tab (Options dialog) to allow

spellcheck options to be set.

4-Save

Save Wizard - opens the Save Wizard to allow saving options and the des-

tination application to be selected.

Save Text to File - saves the recognized text to a disk file. Send Selected Pages To – should you only want to export only selected

batch pages, select the pages concerned and specify the application to which they should be exported. FineReader will export the pages to the application of your choice without saving the text beforehand.

Send All Pages To - exports all recognized pages to the application of your

choice without saving the text beforehand.

Options - opens the Formatting tab (Options dialogue) to allow saving

options to be set.

ABBYY FineReader 6.0 User’s Guide

The Standard toolbar

The Standard toolbar features file and image tools (undo/redo an action, scroll the batch pages, clean and rotate the image) and the list of

Recognition languages.

The Formatting toolbar

The Formatting toolbar features various text formatting tools. You can edit the text and text formatting in the

Text window.

The Image Toolbar

The Image Toolbar features page layout analysis (e.g. block creation and editing) tools, as well as tools for increasing/decreasing the image scale and image editing (e.g. image despeckle etc.)

Font

New

batch

Open batch

Copy

page

Scale

Show Image

and text windows

Show Text window only

Undo

Rota te

clockwise

Zoom out

Cut

Redo

Rota te counterclockwise

Recognition

language

Pas te

Zoom In

Show Image

window only

Font size

Bold

Analyze layout

Draw recognition area

Draw text block Draw table block Draw picture block

Select objects

Add block part

Cut block part

Renumber blocks

Delete blocks

Add vertical separator

Add horizontal separator

Delete separator

Zoom Out

Zoom In

Eraser

Block

drawing tools

Block frame

and positin tools

Table block

tools

Image tools

Italic

Subscript

Center

Justify

error

Underlined

Superscript

Align left

Next error

Align right

Display nonprinted characters

Chapter 2 - Quickstart

Note: Block creation and editing buttons can also be used in the Zoom and Image windows.

Setting up the toolbar

Note: The appearance of the FineReader main window, or more precisely, the number of buttons

displayed on FineReader’s toolbars, depends on your monitor’s resolution. To display all available buttons you need to increase your monitor’s resolution. However, note that FineReader’s functionality is not reduced if some buttons remain invisible - the buttons represent only one way of accessing FineReader’s functions, all of which are also accessible via menus. FineReader allows you to customize the

Standard, Image and Formatting toolbars: application command buttons can be added

and removed at will.

Each menu item has its own icon. See the full list of commands and their respective buttons in the

Customize (Tools>Customize menu) dialog in the Commands list.

To add a button to a toolbar:

1. Select the category of your choice in the Categories field.

Note: The list of commands is grouped according to menu item, and the choice of category

will affect the list of commands displayed in the Commands list.

2. Select the toolbar to which you wish to add a button in the

Toolbars field.

3. Select a command in the

Commands list and click the (>>) button.

The selected command will be added to the list of toolbar commands and displayed on the chosen toolbar in the main window.

To remove a button from a toolbar:

● Select the button you wish removed in the Toolbar buttons list and click the (<<) button.

Note:

1. The order in which buttons are listed also determines their order on the toolbar. To change button order, select the command in the list of current toolbar commands and click the

(Down) button to move the command up (down) the list.

2. Commands may be distributed between a set of groups: select the

Separator item in the

Commands list and click the Add button. A separator will be added to the list of toolbar

buttons. The separator may be moved at will.

3. To restore the default set of buttons on a given toolbar, select the toolbar concerned in the

Toolbars list and click the Reset button. To restore the default set of buttons on all

toolbars, click the Reset All button.

FineReader provides you with all the tools you need for inputting documents into your computer. Just click on the Scan&Read button once and all the rest is done for you - so you don't have to spend hours studying the user’s guide beforehand. You can either send the recognized text to the word processor or a spreadsheet application of your choice; save it in RTF/DOC, PDF or HTML format (and retain the full document layout); or export the recognized text to a database application.

Chapter Contents:

● What is an OCR-system?

● New features of ABBYY FineReader 6.0

● Supported document saving formats

● Supported image formats

Chapter 3

General Features of ABBYY FineReader

ABBYY FineReader 6.0 User’s Guide

What is an OCR System?

An OCR (Optical Character Recognition) system enables you to input printed documents into your computer automatically via a scanner.

FineReader is an omnifont optical text recognition system. As a result it can recognize texts set in practically any font without any prior training. FineReader features high recognition accuracy and low sensitivity to print defects due to its incorporation of special recognition technology based on the principles of Integral Purposeful Adaptive (IPA) perception.

The document input process can be divided into two stages:

1. Scanning. During the first stage the scanner acts as the computer’s "eye". It looks at the image and transfers it to the computer. The acquired image is nothing more than a picture, a set of black, white, and color dots impossible to edit in any word processor.

Recognition. During the second stage FineReader carries out OCR image processing.

Let’s take a closer look at the second stage.

FineReader OCR image processing involves analyzing the image file transmitted by the scanner (layout analysis) and recognizing each character. The layout analysis (selecting the recognition areas, tables, pictures, lines, and individual characters) and image reading processes are closely related. Page layout analysis is more accurate if the nature of the text is known to the application.

As mentioned previously, the image recognition process is based on the principles of Integral Purposeful Adaptive (IPA) perception.

● Integrity – the identification of recognition objects based on a set of basic elements and

their interrelations.

● Purposefulness – the generation and purposeful verification of recognition hypotheses.

● Adaptability – the system’s ability to learn and be trained

These three principles determine the system's behavior. The system generates a hypothesis concerning a recognition object (a character, part of a character, or several glued characters) and then accepts or rejects this hypotheses according to whether the structural elements are present. These structural elements are computer equivalents of character parts crucial for human perception (arcs, circles, dots etc.). The application then adapts itself to the text according to the degree of accuracy attained. Purposeful searching and context information enable the system to recognize even torn and distorted characters, rendering it almost insensitive to print defects.

The final result is the recognized text that you see in the FineReader

Text window, a text you can edit

and save in any convenient format.

New Features of ABBYY FineReader 6.0

General features

● Now you can open and read PDF files in FineReader. PDF is one of the standard formats

used for publishing documents on the Internet, as well as for document archiving, etc. You can open, read, and edit any PDF file in FineReader, and then save it in either PDF or any other format supported by FineReader.

● Integration with Windows Explorer. Image files and FineReader batches can now be

opened directly from Windows Explorer.

● Saving of recognized documents under source image names.

● Customizable toolbars.

Chapter 3 - General Features of ABBYY FineReader

Image processing

● Printing of scanned images and recognized text.

● Automatic and manual splitting of dual-page- and business card scans.

Recognition

● 177 recognition languages. See the full list under Supported languages in ABBYY

FineReader Help.

● An improved algorithm for the recognition of poor print quality documents. The improved

algorithm incorporates a new adaptive image binarization method and a new method of background removal, and is particularly effective in the case of images scanned in “gray” mode.

Saving and editing

● Multicolumn WYSIWYG-editor. Blocks with recognized text, tables, and images are dis-

played in their original location.

● More precise saving of the original document layout in MS Word: saving of non-rectangular

images, multi-column text flows and lists (numbered and bulleted).

● Support of multi-language PDF files: FineReader saves multi-language texts in PDF format

without requiring the user to install additional fonts.

● New PDF saving mode - «Image only».

● Compression rate selection when saving in HTML- and PDF formats.

● JPEG image resolution selection when saving in RTF-, DOC- and PDF formats.

● Alignment of text in tables when exporting to MS Excel or saving in XLS format.

Professional features

● Shared group mode for the use of user languages, user dictionaries, and user dictionaries for

pre-defined languages (FineReader Corporate Edition only).

● Full-text- and individual searches for words in any form can be carried out in any docu-

ment (

Edit>Advanced Search). Available in FineReader Corporate Edition only.

● A form-filling application ABBYY FormFiller (FineReader Corporate Edition only - a bonus

application for registered ABBYY FineReader Professional users).

Supported Document Saving Formats

ABBYY FineReader saves recognition results in the following formats:

● Microsoft Word Document(*.DOC)

● Rich Text Format (*.RTF)

● Adobe Acrobat Format (*.PDF)

● HTML

● Comma Separated Values file (*.CSV)

● Plain Text (*.TXT). FineReader supports various code pages (Windows, DOS, Mac, ISO) and

Unicode encoding.

● Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet (*.XLS)

● DBF

ABBYY FineReader 6.0 User’s Guide

Supported Image Formats

ABBYY FineReader opens image files in the following formats:

PDF: Files in PDF format (Version 1.3 or earlier). BMP: 2-bit - black and white

4- and 8-bit - Palette 16-bit - Mask 24-bit - Palette and TrueColor 32-bit - Mask

PCX, DCX: 2-bit - black and white

4- and 8-bit - gray

JPEG: gray and TrueColor

TIFF: black and white - uncompressed, CCITT3, CCITT3FAX, CCITT4, Packbits

gray - uncompressed, Packbits, JPEG TrueColor - uncompressed, JPEG Palette - uncompressed, Packbits multi image TIFF

PNG: black and white, gray, color

ABBYY FineReader saves image files in the following formats:

BMP: black and white, gray, color

PCX: black and white, gray

JPEG: gray, color

TIFF: black and white - uncompressed, CCITT3, CCITT3FAX, CCITT4, Packbits

gray - uncompressed, Packbits, JPEG color - uncompressed and JPEG

PNG: black and white, gray, color

Recognition quality depends greatly on the quality of the source image. In this chapter you will learn how to scan documents correctly, how to open and read saved images (see the list of supported image formats under Supported Image Formats in the ABBYY FineReader Help section), and how to process images and improve recognition quality (by eliminating scanning "dust") etc.

Chapter Contents:

● Scanning

● Setting scanning parameters

● Tips on brightness tuning

● Scanning multi-page documents

● Opening images

● Scanning dual pages

● Adding images of business cards to a batch

● Page numbering

● Working with an image

● Batch Image Options

Chapter 4

Acquiring the Image

+ 55 hidden pages