Abbyy FINEREADER User Manual
®
ABBYY
Version 10
User’s Guide
FineReader
© 2009 ABBYY. All rights reserved.
ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not bear any commitment on the part of ABBYY.
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.
© 2009 ABBYY. All rights reserved.
ABBYY, the ABBYY logo, ABBYY FineReader, ADRT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of ABBYY Software
Ltd.
© 1984-2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated and its licensors. All rights reserved.
Adobe® PDF Library is licensed from Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Adobe, Acrobat, the Adobe logo, the Acrobat logo, the Adobe PDF logo and Adobe PDF Library are either registered trademarks
or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.
© 1996-2007 LizardTech, Inc. All rights reserved. DjVu is protected by U.S. Patent No. 6.058.214. Foreign Patents Pending.
Fonts Newton, Pragmatica, Courier © 2001 ParaType, Inc.
Font OCR-v-GOST © 2003 ParaType, Inc.
© 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, Windows Vista, Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of
Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
© 1991-2008 Unicode, Inc. All rights reserved.
OpenOffice.org is property of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
JasPer License Version 2.0:
© 2001-2006 Michael David Adams
© 1999-2000 Image Power, Inc.
© 1999-2000 The University of British Columbia
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
Contents
Introducing ABBYY FineReader .................................................................................................4
What is ABBYY FineReader .................................................................................................................................. 4
What's New in ABBYY FineReader.......................................................................................................................4
The ABBYY FineReader 10 Interface.......................................................................................... 6
The Main Window ..................................................................................................................................................6
Toolbars...................................................................................................................................................................7
Customizing the ABBYY FineReader Workspace..................................................................................................7
The Options Dialog Box .........................................................................................................................................8
Working With ABBYY FineReader...........................................................................................10
ABBYY FineReader Quick Tasks.........................................................................................................................10
ABBYY FineReader Step–by–Step ......................................................................................................................13
ABBYY FineReader Document............................................................................................................................ 15
Taking Into Account Some of the Features of Your Paper Document ..................................................................17
Image Acquisition Tips ......................................................................................................................................... 19
Tips for Improving OCR Quality ..........................................................................................................................26
Checking and Editing the Recognized Text .......................................................................................................... 31
Working with Complex–Script Languages ........................................................................................................... 34
Saving the Results ................................................................................................................................................. 36
Advanced Features....................................................................................................................... 45
Working in Other Applications .............................................................................................................................45
Using Area Templates...........................................................................................................................................45
Recognition With Training....................................................................................................................................46
User Languages and Language Groups................................................................................................................. 48
Group Work in a LAN ..........................................................................................................................................49
ABBYY FineReader Automated Task Management ............................................................................................50
ABBYY Hot Folder ..............................................................................................................................................53
Appendix ....................................................................................................................................... 58
Glossary.................................................................................................................................................................58
Supported Image Formats .....................................................................................................................................59
Supported Saving Formats ....................................................................................................................................61
Languages and Their Fonts ...................................................................................................................................62
Regular Expressions..............................................................................................................................................64
Shortcuts................................................................................................................................................................65
Using ABBYY FineReader Help ..........................................................................................................................68
How to Buy an ABBYY Product.................................................................................................71
About ABBYY...................................................................................................................................................... 71
ABBYY Offices and Technical Support Contacts ................................................................................................ 72
Activating and Registering ABBYY FineReader ...................................................................... 73
ABBYY FineReader Activation............................................................................................................................73
ABBYY FineReader Registration.........................................................................................................................73
Privacy Policy .......................................................................................................................................................74
Technical Support ........................................................................................................................ 75
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
Introducing ABBYY FineReader
This chapter provides an overview of ABBYY FineReader and its features.
Chapter contents:
● What Is ABBYY FineReader
● What's New in ABBYY FineReader
What is ABBYY FineReader
ABBYY FineReader is an optical character recognition (OCR) system. It is used to convert scanned documents, PDF
documents, and image files, including digital photos, into editable formats.
ABBYY FineReader advantages
Fast and accurate recognition
● The OCR system used in ABBYY FineReader lets users quickly and accurately recognize and retain the source formatting of
any document (including text on background images, colored text on colored backgrounds, text wrapped around an image,
etc.).
● Thanks to ABBYY's adaptive document recognition technology (ADRT®), ABBYY FineReader can analyze and process a
document as a whole, instead of page by page. This approach retains the source document's structure, including formating,
hyperlinks, e–mail addresses, headers and footers, image and table captions, page numbers, and footnotes.
● ABBYY FineReader can recognize documents written in one or several of 186 languages, including Korean, Chinese,
Japanese, Thai, and Hebrew. ABBYY FineReader also features auto–detection of document languages.
● What's more, ABBYY FineReader is largely immune to printing defects and can recognize texts printed in virtually any font.
● The program also includes a wide range of options for output data: documents can be saved in a variety of formats, sent by e–
mail, or transferred to other applications for further processing.
Ease of use
● ABBYY FineReader's user–friendly and intuitive results–driven interface allows you to use the program without any
● ABBYY FineReader Quick Tasks include a list of the most frequently used tasks for converting scanned documents, PDF,
● Seamless integration with Microsoft Office and Windows Explorer lets you recognize documents directly from Microsoft
● FineReader also features a Help menu with examples that illustrate how to use the program to accomplish a number of
additional training. New users can master the main functions in almost no time at all. Users can change the interface language
directly in the program.
and image files into editable formats, and make it possible to retrieve an e–document with one mouse–click.
Outlook, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Windows Explorer.
complex conversion–related tasks.
What's New in ABBYY FineReader
Below are descriptions of the new features and updates in ABBYY FineReader.
Intelligent document processing
● ABBYY's ADRT® technology
ABBYY FineReader uses the revolutionary new Adaptive Document Recognition Technology ADRT® 2.0, which lets users
analyze and process entire documents at once, instead of page by page.
Now, with ADRT technology, users can restore the document heading hierarchy and use it to construct an index. The
restoration process for components of the logical document structure, such as headers and footers, footnotes, image and table
captions, etc., is now improved. When recognition results are saved in Microsoft Word, these elements are reproduced not just
as text, but as the appropriate Microsoft Word objects.
● Automated image pre–processing
ABBYY FineReader 10 can automatically preprocess digital images. When activated, the image preprocessing feature
automatically decides what action to take depending on the input image type and applies the correction. Adjustments include
removing noise from digital photos, deskewing, straightening text lines, and correcting trapezium distortions.
This type of processing considerably improves the quality of digital photos recognition.
● MRC compression of PDF and PDF/A files
If data are exported to PDF and PDF/A formats, users have option to use MRC (Mixed Raster Content), an advanced
compression technology. This technology produces improved file compression results with no damage to the quality of the
file. MRC is the best choice for processing color documents.
● Language recognition
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
ABBYY FineReader can recognize documents in 186 languages, including Russian, English, German, French, Spanish,
Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Slovakian, Czech, Bashkir, Byelorussian, Kazakh, Ukrainian, Chinese,
Japanese, Thai, and Hebrew.
The latest version also supports recognition of texts in Korean.
Ease of use
● Auto–detection of document languages
ABBYY FineReader uses the latest technologies to automatically detect document languages, making the program more user–
friendly and improving recognition quality.
● New Quick Tasks
The expanded selection of quick tasks, including the most frequently used recognition tasks, lets you easily and quickly
achieve the results you want. The input data can be provided as PDF documents, image files, digital photos, or scanned
documents.
● Enhanced interface
The new results–driven interface of ABBYY FineReader 10 has been enhanced, making it even more user–friendly and
intuitive.
● The new New Task window makes it easier to work with quick tasks.
● New toolbars provide access to basic commands.
● Keyboard shortcuts can now be customized, and the most frequently used tools are displayed on the quick access bar.
● ABBYY FineReader features optimized performance on multi–core processors
ABBYY FineReader runs efficiently on multi–core processors, which are featured in more and more personal computers today.
This helps significantly accelerate document processing.
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
The ABBYY FineReader 10 Interface
ABBYY FineReader's user–friendly, intuitive, and results–driven interface makes it easy to use the program without any
additional training. It takes new users almost no time at all to master the main functions.
ABBYY FineReader's interface can be customized.
You can customize your workspace to suit your individual needs.
● Change the window position and size
● Set up the the quick access bar for access to the most frequently used commands
● Set up the keyboard shortcuts — you can change the preset key combinations and add your own to run specific program
commands
● Select your preferred interface language, etc.
Chapter contents:
● The Main Window
● Toolbars
● Customizing the ABBYY FineReader Workspace
● The Options Dialog Box
The Main Window
When ABBYY FineReader is started, the main window opens and the New Task window is used to execute ABBYY FineReader
Quick Tasks.
The main window displays the ABBYY FineReader document that is currently open. For details, see ABBYY FineReader
documents.
● In the Page window, you can view the pages of the current FineReader document. There are two page viewing modes: icons
(which shows a small image) or a list of document pages and their properties. You can toggle between these modes from this
window's shortcut menu, from the View menu, and the Options dialog box (Tools>Options…).
● The Image window displays an image of the current page. You can edit image areas, page images, and text properties in this
window.
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
● In the Text window, you can view recognized text. You can also check spelling and format and edit recognized text in the
Text window.
● The Zoom window displays an enlarged image of the line or processed image area currently being edited. While the Image
window displays the general page view, the Zoom window provides an easy way to view the image in greater detail, adjust
the area type and position, or compare uncertain characters with the enlarged image. You can change the image scale in the
Zoom window from the panel
Window toggle keys
● Press Ctrl+Tab to toggle between windows
● Press Alt+1 to activate the Page window
● Press Alt+2 to activate the Image window
● Press Alt+3 to activate the Text window
in the bottom part of the window.
Toolbars
The main window of ABBYY FineReader features several toolbars. Toolbar buttons provide easy access to program commands.
The same commands can be executed from the program menu or with keyboard shortcuts.
The Main Toolbar has a fixed set of buttons for all basic actions: opening a document, scanning a page, opening an image,
recognizing pages, saving results, etc.
The Quick Access Bar can be customized by adding special buttons for virtually any command in the main menu. By default, this
bar is not displayed in the main window. Todisplay it, select the Quick Access Bar under View>Toolbars, or from the main
toolbar's shortcut menu.
To customize the Quick Access Bar by adding or removing buttons used to access program commands:
1. Open the Customize Toolbars and Shortcuts dialog box. (Tools>Customize…)
2. On the Toolbars tab in the Categories field, select the desired category.
Note. When a different category is selected, the commands on the Commands list will change according to the set of
commands on the main menu.
3. Select a command from the Commands list and click the >> (or<<) button.
The selected command will appear on (or disappear from) the toolbar's command list.
4. In order to save your changes, click the OK button.
5. In order to reset the Quick Access Bar to its default view, click the Reset All button.
You can find the toolbars for the Pages, Image, and Text windows in the top part of these windows with fixed button sets.
The Document Messages Pane displays error warnings and pop–up messages when the program is running. By default, the pane
is displayed when the page is selected in the Pages window. You can browse through messages with the
/ buttons.
Customizing the ABBYY FineReader Workspace
● You can temporarily hide the windows you do not use. In order to hide/show windows, use the View menu options or
keyboard shortcuts:
● F5 for the Pages window
● F6 for the Image window
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
● F7 for the Image and Text windows
● F8 for the Text window
● Ctrl+F5 for the Zoom window
● You can change the window size by dragging the window spacers with your mouse.
● You can also change the position of the Pages and Zoom windows.Use the commands in the View menu or the window
shortcut menu.
● You can customize the way warnings and error messages are displayed while the program is running. By default, warnings
and error messages pop up when a page is selected in the Pages window. In order to display warnings and error messages in a
pane docked to the bottom of the main window, click
● To show/hide the Properties panel in the Image or Text window, right–click anywhere in the window and then select
Properties from the shortcut menu. Alternatively, you can click
of the Text window.
● Some window settings can be customized in Options dialog box on the View tab.
.
at the bottom of the Image window or at the bottom
The interface language
The interface language is selected when ABBYY FineReader is installed. This language will be used to write all messages, and
the names of dialog boxes, buttons, and program menu items will be displayed in this language. You can toggle between the
interface languages in the program as it runs.
In order to do so, follow these instructions:
1. Open the Options dialog box on the Advanced tab (Tools>Options…).
2. Select the desired language from the Interface language drop–down menu.
3. Click the Close button.
4. Restart ABBYY FineReader.
The Options Dialog Box
The Options dialog box contains the settings you can use to manage options for opening, scanning, and saving documents in
different formats, customizing the appearance of program windows, selecting your preferred language, and specifying the source
document's print type, program interface language, and more.
Important! The options dialog box is under the Tools>Options… menu. It can also be accessed from the options toolbar, dialog
boxes for saving data in different formats, the dialog boxes used to open images, and the toolbar's shortcut menu.
The dialog box has 6 tabs. Each tab contains options for certain program functions:
● Document
Use this option to customize the following:
● Document languages (the languages in which the input document is written)
● The document print type
● Document properties (the file name, author, and keywords)
● Scan/Open
Use this option to customize the general options for automated document processing, and the settings for pre–processing
images when scanning and opening documents, such as activating/deactivating the following:
● Automatic analysis of document layout (identifying layout areas and types)
● Automatic image conversion
● Automatic image pre-processing
● Automatic identification of page orientation
● Automatic separation of facing pages
You can also select your scanner driver and scanning interface.
● Read
This option contains recognition settings:
● Recognition can be set to either "fast" or "detailed".
● You can also determine whether or not you wish to use a custom template during recognition.
● Save
This option lets you select the format in which the output document will be saved:
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
● RTF/DOC/DOCX
For details, see Saving in RTF/DOC/DOCX.
● XLS/XLSX
For details, see Saving in XLS/XLSX.
● PDF
For details, see Saving in PDF.
● PDF/A
For details, see Saving in PDF/A.
● HTML
For details, see Saving in HTML.
● PPTX
For details, see Saving in PPTX.
● TXT
For details, see Saving in TXT.
● CSV
For details, see Saving in CSV.
● View
This option contains:
● Settings for the page view in the Pages (Thumbnails or Details) window
● Options for the Text window, including the option to highlight uncertain characters and words (and the highlighting
color), whether non-printable characters (e.g. line feed) should be displayed, and what font should be used to display plain
text
● The settings for the colors and thickness of borders enclosing various types of areas in the Image window
● Advanced
This option contains settings for:
● The selection of fonts used in the output document
● The spell checker for recognized text
● The path to the folder where user languages will be saved
● Opening the most recently used document when the application starts up
● The program interface language
● The button used to save the current full option set into a file
● The button used to load the full option set from a previously saved file saved
● The button used to reset the option set to default options
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
Working With ABBYY FineReader
This chapter provides an overview of ABBYY FineReader: how to quickly produce an e–document in a format convenient for
editing and use, and how to perform complex and nonstandard text–recognition tasks.
Chapter contents:
● ABBYY FineReader Quick Tasks
● Primary Quick Tasks
● Quick Tasks for Conversion Into a Microsoft Word Document
● Quick Tasks for Converting a Document Into a Searchable Adobe PDF
● Other Quick Tasks
● ABBYY FineReader Step–by–Step
● Getting an Image
● Recognition
● Checking and Editing
● Saving Results
● Sending Results by e–mail
● ABBYY FineReader Document
● General
● Working With ABBYY FineReader Documents
● Page Numbering in ABBYY FineReader Documents
● How to Incorporate Specific Features of Your Paper Document
● Image Acquisition Tips
● Tips for Improving OCR Quality
● Checking and Editing the Recognized Text
● Working with Complex–Script Languages
● Saving the Results in different formats
ABBYY FineReader Quick Tasks
Document processing with ABBYY FineReader often involves the same execution sequence, e.g., scanning and recognizing a
document, and then saving the results in a particular format. In order to execute the most frequently used tasks, ABBYY
FineReader features the Quick Tasks option in order to obtain recognized text with just a click.
Quick Tasks are launched from the New Task window, which opens by default after the application loads. If the New Task
window is closed, click on the main toolbar and then the New Task button.
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
1. In the New Task window, select the desired task tab:
● Primary Quick Tasks
● Quick tasks for conversion into a Microsoft Word document
● Quick tasks for converting a document into a searchable Adobe PDF
● Other quick tasks
2. Select recognized languages from the Document Language drop–down menu. Additional options are available (at the bottom
of the window) for automated tasks used to convert data into a Microsoft Word document or an Adobe PDF document.
3. Click the appropriate button for your automated task.
ABBYY FineReader tasks are executed subject to the settings customized in the Options dialog box (Tools>Options…).
While an automated task is running, the screen shows the task execution bar with the task execution indicator, a list of automated
task steps, tips, and warnings.
Note. In order to recognize documents with complex structures, you can customize and start each processing stage manually.
ABBYY FineReader also includes the option to create your own custom automated tasks with the steps required for your custom
jobs.
Primary Quick Tasks
Use the Common tab on the New Task window to access the most frequently used Quick Tasks in ABBYY FineReader.
1. Select document languages from the Document Language drop–down menu located in the upper section of the window.
2. Click the appropriate button for your task:
● Scan to Microsoft Word lets you scan any paper document and convert it into a Microsoft Word document.
● Scan to Microsoft Excel lets you scan any paper document and convert it into a Microsoft Excel table.
● Scan to Searchable PDF Image lets you scan any paper document and convert it into a searchable Adobe PDF
document.
● Scan to Image lets you scan any paper document and save the images. When scanning is complete, the application will
open the image saving dialog box.
● Convert PDF/Image to Microsoft Word lets you convert PDF documents and image files into a Microsoft Word
document.
● Convert Photo to Microsoft Word lets you convert images from digital photos into a Microsoft Word document.
3. As a result, a new document with the recognized text will open in the application you have selected. When the Scan to Image
task is completed, the image saving dialog box will open.
Important! When Quick Tasks are executed, the data are by default converted in line with the program's current settings. If you
have changed the application settings, please re–run the task to retrieve the recognized text under the new settings.
Quick Tasks for Conversion Into a Microsoft Word Document
You can use the Microsoft Word tab in the New Task window to access ABBYY FineReader's Quick Tasks, which are used to
convert images of any origin (scanned documents, digital photos, PDF and image files) into a Microsoft Word document for easy
editing and use.
Important! You must have Microsoft Word installed on your computer to run the tasks in this group.
1. From the Document Language drop–down menu in the top part of the window, select document languages.
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
2. In the bottom part of the window, select the desired conversion settings:
● Document format saving mode
● Select Keep pictures if you need to retain the images in the target document.
● Select Keep headers and footers if you need to retain the headers and footers in the target document.
3. Click the appropriate button for your task.
● Scan to Microsoft Word lets you scan and convert a paper document.
● Convert PDF/Image to Microsoft Word lets you convert PDF documents and image files.
● Convert Photo to Microsoft Word lets you convert images from digital photos.
4. When the document processing is complete, a new Microsoft Word document containing the recognized text will open.
Important! When Quick Tasks are executed, data are by default converted in line with the program's current settings. If you have
changed application settings, please re–run the task to retrieve the recognized text under new settings.
Quick Tasks for Converting a Document Into a Searchable Adobe PDF
Using the Adobe PDF tab in the New Task window, you can access ABBYY FineReader's Quick Tasks to convert images of any
type (scanned documents, PDF and image files) into a searchable Adobe PDF document.
Important! You must have a PDF viewing application installed on your computer in order to run this group of tasks.
1. From the Document Language drop–down menu in the top part of the window, select document languages.
2. Select the Compress into black & white PDF document option in the bottom part of the screen to reduce the size of the PDF
file by saving an image in black & white mode.
3. Click the appropriate button for your task:
● Scan to Searchable PDF Image lets you scan any paper document and convert it into a searchable Adobe PDF document
in the Text under the page image mode.
● Scan to Editable PDF Document lets you scan any paper document and convert it into an Adobe PDF document in the
Text over the page image mode.
● Convert to Searchable PDF Image lets you convert PDF documents and image files into an Adobe PDF document in the
Text under the page image mode.
● Convert to Editable PDF Document lets you convert PDF documents and image files into an Adobe PDF document in
the Text over the page image mode.
4. A new PDF document will open in the PDF document viewing application.
Important! When Quick Tasks are exected, data are by default converted in line with the program's current settings. If you have
changed application settings, please re–run the task to retrieve the recognized text under new settings.
Tip. When saving your scanned document to PDF, you can set passwords to protect your PDF document from unauthorized
opening, printing, or editing. For details, see PDF security settings.
Other Quick Tasks
Use the Other tab on the New Task window to access ABBYY FineReader's other Quick Tasks options.
1. From the Document Language drop–down menu in the top part of the window, select document languages.
2. Click the appropriate button for your task.
● Scan to HTML Document lets you scan any paper document and convert it into an HTML document.
● Scan to Other Formats lets you scan any paper document and convert it into any of the supported formats.
● Convert PDF/Image to Microsoft Excel lets you convert PDF documents and image files into a Microsoft Excel
document.
● Convert PDF/Image to Other Formats lets you convert PDF documents and image files into any of the application's
supported formats.
● Scan lets you scan a paper document.
● Open lets you open PDF documents and image files.
3. Depending on the task selected, a new document will open, or a dialog box with saving options will open. If a document is
opened, it will contain the recognized text, and the images will be added to a FineReader document.
Important! When Quick Tasks are executed, data are by default converted in line with the program's current settings. If you have
changed the application settings, please re–run the task to retrieve the recognized text under new settings.
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
ABBYY FineReader Step–by–Step
The process in which documents are added to ABBYY FineReader is made up of four stages. An image is retrieved, recognized,
and checked, and the recognition results are saved. This section contains information about each of the four stages.
● Getting an Image
● Recognition
● Checking and Editing
● Saving Results
● Sending Results by e–mail
Getting an Image
To begin the OCR process, ABBYY FineReader needs to retrieve an image of your document. There are several ways to create an
image, including:
● Scanning your paper document
● Opening an existing image file or PDF document
● Taking a picture of your text
Scanning paper documents
1. Make sure that your scanner is connected and turned on.
Consult your scanner's documentation to ensure it is set up correctly. Be sure to install the software provided with your
scanner. Some scanner models must be turned on before the computer is turned on.
2. Put the page to be scanned into the scanner. If the scanner is equipped with an automatic document feeder, you can put
multiple pages into the scanner if you need to process a multi–page document.
3. Click Scan, or select Scan Pages… from the File menu.
The scanning dialog box will open. Select the appropriate settings and start scanning. The scanned pages will be added to the
Pages window in ABBYY FineReader.
Tip. Typical printed office documents are best scanned in greyscale at 300 dpi.
The quality of OCR results depends on the quality of the source document quality and the selected scanning options. Low image
quality may affect recognition results. That's why it is important to correctly customize scanning settings and account for the
features of the input document.
Opening image files and PDF documents
You can open files in PDF format and recognize finished image files (for details, see Supported Image Formats).
How to open an image or PDF file:
● In ABBYY FineReader, click Open, or select Open PDF File/Image… from the File menu.
In the dialog box, select Open image:
1. Select one or more images.
2. Specify the page range for a multi–page document.
3. Enable the Detect page orientation option to automatically detect the page layout when opening images.
4. Activate the Split dual pages option to automatically split dual pages into separate images when opening images.
5. Enable the Enable image preprocessing option to perform automated image preprocessing when images are opened.
Note. When page images are opened or scanned for the first time, they are added to a new FineReader document displayed in
the Pages window. Later, when the page images are opened or scanned, they will be added to the bottom of the open
FineReader document.
● In Windows Explorer, right–click the appropriate image file and select Open in ABBYY FineReader from the shortcut
menu.
● In Microsoft Outlook, select the e–mail message with the image or PDF attachments you wish to open, and then click
the toolbar. Select one file from the dialog box.
● In Microsoft Outlook or Windows Explorer, drag the desired image file into ABBYY FineReader's main window. The
image will be added to the current ABBYY FineReader document.
Note. The author of a PDF file may choose to restrict access to it. For example, the author may create a password or restrict
certain features, such as the ability to extract text and graphics. To adhere to copyright guidelines, ABBYY FineReader will
ask you for a password to open such files.
Taking a picture of a text with a camera
on
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
ABBYY FineReader can perform OCR on images created with a digital camera.
1. Take a picture of the text.
Note. Good quality photos are required for successful OCR results.
2. Save the photo to your hard disk.
3. Click on the Open button, or select Open PDF File/Image… from the File menu.
Recognition
ABBYY FineReader uses Optical Character Recognition technologies to convert document images into editable text. Before
performing OCR, the program analyzes the structure of the entire document and detects the areas that contain text, barcodes,
images, and tables.
ABBYY FineReader documents are by default recognized automatically under current program settings.
Tip. You can disable automatic analysis and OCR for newly added images from the Scan/Open tab of the Options dialog box
(Tools>Options…).
To achieve the best OCR quality, select the appropriate options for the recognition language, recognition mode, and recognized
text print type.
In some cases, the OCR process can be started manually. For example, if you disabled automatic recognition, manually selected
areas on an image, or changed the following settings in the Options dialog box (Tools>Options…):
● The recognition language on the Document tab.
● The document print type on the Document tab.
● The recognition settings on the Read tab.
● Font matching on the Advanced tab.
To launch the OCR process manually:
● Click the Read button on the main toolbar, or
● Select Read from the Document menu
Tip. To recognize the selected area or page, use the appropriate options on the Page and Areas menus, or use the shortcut menu.
Checking and Editing
Recognition results are displayed in the Text window. Uncertain characters are highlighted in color in this window. This makes it
easy to locate possible errors and quickly correct them.
You can edit the output document either directly in the Text window or with the built–in Check Spelling dialog box
(Options…>Check Spelling…), which lets you browse through uncertain words, find spelling errors, add new words to your
dictionary, and change the dictionary language.
ABBYY FineReader also lets you adjust the formatting of recognized text.
You can edit recognized text in the Text window with the buttons on the main toolbar and the Text Properties panel (via the
shortcut menu of the Text>Properties window).
Note. When ABBYY FineReader performs OCR, it automatically detects the document's styles. All of the selected styles are
displayed on the Text Properties panel. By editing styles, you can easily change the formatting of the entire text. ABBYY
FineReader preserves all styles when saving text to RTF/DOC/DOCX formats.
Saving Results
Recognized text can be saved to a file, sent to the application of your choice, copied to the Clipboard, or sent by e–mail in any of
the formats supported by ABBYY FineReader. You can save either the entire document, or selected pages only.
Important! Be sure to select the appropriate saving options before clicking Save.
To save recognized text:
1. Select the format saving mode on the main toolbar's drop–down menu.
Document Format Saving Modes.
● Exact copy
lets you obtain a document with formatting that corresponds to that of the original.
It is recommended for documents with complex formatting, such as promotion booklets. Note, however, that this option
limits the ability to change the text and format of the output document.
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
● Editable copy
produces a document in which the formatting may differ slightly from that of the original. Documents produced in this
mode is easy to edit.
● Formatted text
retains fonts, font sizes, and paragraphs, but does not retain the exact spacing or locations of the objects on the page. The
text produced will be left–aligned. Text read from right to left will be aligned on the right–hand side margin.
Note. Vertical texts will be changed to horizontal in this mode.
● Plain text
This mode does not retain text formatting.
Important! The list of available options may vary depending on the selected saving format.
2. On the Save tab of the Options dialog box, select the desired saving options and click OK.
3. Click the arrow to the right of the Save button on the main toolbar and select the appropriate option, or use commands from
the File menu.
Note. ABBYY FineReader lets you save page images. For details, see Saving an Image of the Page.
Sending Results by e–mail
ABBYY FineReader lets you send your recognition results by e–mail in any of the formats supported by ABBYY FineReader.
To send a document:
1. Select e–mail>Document from the File menu.
2. In the dialog box, select:
● The format in which the document should be saved
● The pages of the document to be saved and sent: all pages, or only selected pages
● File options
3. Click OK. An e–mail message will be created with the attached file(s). Simply specify the recipient and send the message.
You can also e–mail the images of document pages.
To send page images:
1. From the File menu, select e–mail>Page Images.
2. In the dialog box:
● Select the format in which the document should be saved.
● Select the page images to be sent: all of the pages, or only selected pages.
● Select Send only selected areas if you need to send images of the selected page areas only.
● Select Send as multi–page image file if you need to send images as a multi–page file.
3. Click OK. An e–mail message will be created with the attached file(s). Simply specify the recipient and send the message.
ABBYY FineReader Document
An ABBYY FineReader document contains both source document images and recognized text. Most program settings (e.g. the
scanning and OCR options selected by the user, patterns, languages, and language groups) apply to the entire ABBYY FineReader
document.
● ABBYY FineReader Document: General
Provides information on how page images are displayed in the Document window and how to customize the view of the
Document window.
● Working with ABBYY FineReader Documents
Provides information on how to open, delete, and close an ABBYY FineReader document, how to add images to a document,
and how to save a document or document options.
● Page Numbering in ABBYY FineReader Documents
General
A new ABBYY FineReader is opened by default when you start ABBYY FineReader. You can use it or open an existing ABBYY
FineReader document.
All document pages are displayed in the Pages window. The page thumbnails in the Pages window are displayed according to the
selected display mode.
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
To change the thumbnail display mode:
● Click View>Pages Window. Then select Thumbnails or Details.
● In the shortcut menu of the Pages window, select Pages Window View. Then select either Thumbnails or Details.
● On the View tab of the Options dialog box (Tools>Options…), in the Pages Window group, select either Thumbnails or
Details.
To view a page document, click its thumbnail in the Pages window (in Thumbnails mode) or double–click its number (in Details
mode). In the Image window you will then see the page image, and in the Text window, the recognition results (if the document
was recognized).
Note: When opening FineReader documents created in earlier versions of ABBYY FineReader, the program attempts to convert
them into its new format. As this conversion cannot be undone, ABBYY FineReader will prompt you to save the converted
document under a new name. All recognized text will be lost in the process.
Working With ABBYY FineReader Documents
When working with an ABBYY FineReader document, you can do the following:
● Create a new document
● From the File menu, select New FineReader Document, or
● On the main toolbar, click
● Delete a page from the current document
● In the Document window, select the page you wish to delete and then select Delete Page from Document from the Page
menu, or
● In the Document window, right-click the page you wish to delete and then select Delete Page from Document from the
shortcut menu
To select several pages, hold down the CTRL key and click each of the desired pages in turn.
● Open a document
At launch, ABBYY FineReader automatically creates a new document.
Note. If you wish ABBYY FineReader to open the last document on which you were working in the previous session, select
Tools>Options…, click the Advanced tab, and then select Open the last used FineReader document at startup.
To open a document:
1. From the File menu, select the Open FineReader Document…
2. In the Open Document dialog box, select the desired document.
Note. You can also open an ABBYY FineReader document directly from Windows Explorer by right–clicking the desired
document folder (document folders are displayed as
menu.
● Add images to the current document
● From the File menu, select Open PDF File/Image…
● In the Open Image dialog box, select the desired images and click Open. The selected images will be added to the
document and their copies saved in the document folder.
Note. You can also add images directly from Windows Explorer:
● In Windows Explorer, select the desired image files, right-click the selection, and select Open with ABBYY
FineReader from the shortcut menu.
If ABBYY FineReader is running, the selected files will be added to the current document. Otherwise, ABBYY
FineReader will be launched and the selected files will be added to a new document.
● Save the current document
1. From the File menu, select Save FineReader Document…
2. In the Save Document dialog box, type in a name for your document and specify a storage location.
Note. Saving an ABBYY FineReader document will save the page images, the recognized text, the trained patterns, and the
user languages (if any).
) and selecting Open with ABBYY FineReader from the shortcut
● Close the current document
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
● To close a page of the current document, select the page and then select Close Current Page from the Document menu.
● To close the entire document, select Close FineReader Document from the File menu.
● Save the current document options
To save the current document options to a file:
1. Select Tools>Options… and click the Advanced tab.
2. Click the Save Options… button.
Note. To restore the default options, click Reset to Defaults.
3. In the Save Options dialog box, type in a name for your file and specify a storage location.
The following document options will be saved:
● the options selected on the Document, Scan/Open, Read, Save, View, and Advanced tabs of the Options dialog box
(Tools>Options…)
● language groups, user dictionaries, and patterns
● the path to the folder where user languages and dictionaries are stored
To restore the default settings, click the Reset to Defaults button on the Advanced tab of the Options dialog box
(Tools>Options…).
● Load document options
1. Select Tools>Options… and click the Advanced tab.
2. Click the Load Options… button.
3. In the Load Options dialog box, select the file containing the desired document options (options files have the extension
*.fbt) and click Open.
Page Numbering in ABBYY FineReader Documents
All pages in a document are numbered. Page numbers are displayed in the Pages window near the page thumbnails.
To add page numbering:
1. In the Pages window, select one or multiple pages.
2. On the shortcut menu of the Pages window, click Renumber Pages.
3. In the dialog box that opens, choose one of the following:
● Renumber pages
This changes all page numbers successively, starting with the selected page.
● Restore original page numbers after duplex scanning
This restores the initial numbering of the source document, if you used the feeder to separately scan, first, the odd pages,
and, second, the even ones.
Important! A minimum of 3 pages with successive numbering must be allotted for this operation.
Note. To cancel this operation, select Undo "Restore page numbers after duplex scanning".
4. Click OK.
The order of pages in the Pages window will change according to the new numbering.
Notes:
1. To change the number of one page, click its number in the Pages window and enter the new number in the field.
2. In Thumbnails mode, you can change page numbering simply by dragging selected pages to the desired place in the
document.
Taking Into Account Some of the Features of Your Paper Document
OCR quality greatly depends on the quality of the source image. Consider the following elements to ascertain whether you will
get the scanning results you desire:
● Print Type
Various devices may be used to produce printed documents, such as typewriters or faxes. Recognition quality for these
documents may vary. This section provides recommendations for selecting the right print type.
● Print Quality
OCR quality may be greatly impaired by "noise" that sometimes occurs on poor quality documents. This section provides
recommendations for scanning these documents.
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
● Document Languages
A document may contain text written in multiple languages. This section provides recommendations for selecting recognition
languages.
Print Type
When recognizing typewritten texts or faxes, OCR quality can be improved by selecting the corresponding print type in the
Options dialog box.
For most documents, the program will detect the print type automatically. For automatic print type detection, the Autodetect
option must be selected under Document print type in the Options dialog box (the Tools>Options…> menu, then the Document
tab). You may also choose to manually select the print type as needed.
Tip. After recognizing typewritten texts and faxes, be sure to select Autodetect to process regular printed documents.
An example of typewritten text. All letters are of equal width (compare, for example, "w" and
"t"). For texts of this type, select Typewriter.
An example of a text produced by a fax machine. As you can see from the example, the letters
are not clear in some places, in addition to noise and distortion. For texts of this type, select Fax.
Print Quality
Poor–quality documents with "noise" (i.e. random black dots or speckles), blurred and uneven letters, or skewed lines and shifted
table borders may require specific scanning settings.
Fax Newspaper
Poor–quality documents are best scanned in grayscale. When scanning in grayscale, the program will select the optimal brightness
value automatically.
Grayscale color mode retains more information about the letters in the scanned text to achieve better OCR results when
recognizing documents of medium to poor quality. You can also correct some print defects using the tools in the Edit Image
dialog box.
Document Languages
ABBYY FineReader recognizes both mono– and multi–lingual (e.g. written in two languages) documents. For multi–lingual
documents, you must select several recognition languages.
To set the document recognition language, in the Pages window (or the New Task window, if you are using quick tasks), use the
Document Languages drop–down list, and select one of the following:
● Autoselect
ABBYY FineReader will automatically select the appropriate languages from the user–defined list of languages. To modify
this list:
1. Select More languages…
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
2. In the Language Editor dialog box, select the option Automatically select document languages from the following list
is selected.
3. Click the Specify… button.
4. In the Language List dialog box, select the desired languages.
● A language or a combination of languages
Select a language or a language combination. The list of languages includes the languages most often used on the computer, as
well as English, German, and French.
● More languages…
Select this option if the language you need is not visible in the list.
In the Language Editor dialog box, select the Specify languages manually option and then select the desired language or
languages by checking the appropriate boxes. If you often use a particular language combination, you can create a new group
for these languages.
There are several reasons that a language may not be listed:
1. The language is not supported by ABBYY FineReader.
2. The language was disabled during custom installation.
To install additional recognition languages:
1. Click Start>Settings>Control Panel and then double-click Add or Remove Programs.
2. In the list of installed programs, select ABBYY FineReader 10 and click Change.
3. In the Custom Setup dialog box, select the desired languages.
4. Follow the setup instructions.
Image Acquisition Tips
OCR quality depends on the quality of the original image and the settings used during the scanning process.
● Customizing Scanning and Image Opening Settings
● Selecting the Scanning Mode
Refer to this section more information about scanning with the ABBYY FineReader interface and the scanner driver interface,
the features of the interfaces and how to toggle between them.
● Brightness Tuning Settings
● Font Is Too Small
● Adjusting Image Resolution
● Scanning Facing Pages
● Photographing Documents
This section will help you set up your digital camera and produce an image of the document that is suitable for OCR.
● Automatic Image Preprocessing
● Editing Images Manually
Customizing Scanning and Image Opening Settings
ABBYY FineReader lets users modify global automatic document processing options and options for scanning and opening
document pages, including: activating/deactivating automatic document analysis and recognition, image preprocessing, and
selecting the scanning interface.
The appropriate settings can be selected directly from the image Opening or Scanning dialog boxes (when using the ABBYY
FineReader interface to scan documents) and on the Scan/Open tab of the Options dialog box (Tools>Options…).
Important! Any program setting changes made in the Options dialog box require re–scanning or re–opening the image. These
steps are required to processyour image under the new settings.
The following settings are available on the Scan/Open tab of the Options dialog box:
● Launching automatic analysis and recognition of the retrieved images
ABBYY FineReader is by default set to analyze and recognize documents automatically. These settings can be modified as
needed. The following options are available:
● Automatically read acquired page images
Document analysis and recognition will be performed automatically.
● Automatically analyze acquired page images
Document analysis will be performed automatically, and recognition will require the user's attention.
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
● Do not read and analyze acquired page images automatically
The scanned or opened images will be added to the FineReader document. The user will have to initiate document
analysis and recognition manually. This mode is used for processing documents with a complex structure.
● Image processing methods
● Enable image preprocessing
Enable image preprocessing if you need to OCR a book or a digital photo of a text document. When activated, this feature
automatically decides what action to take depending on the input image type and applies the correction. Adjustments
include removing noise from digital photos, deskewing, removing motion blur, straightening text lines, and correcting
trapezium distortions.
● Detect page orientation
Enable this feature to automatically detect the orientation of pages added to the FineReader document.
● Split dual pages
Enable this feature when scanning a facing or opening dual pages. It will automatically split pages before adding them to
the FineReader document.
Note. The image preprocessing features are only available in the Edit Image dialog box to process the images opened in
FineReader, and are not available while scanning or opening document pages. For details, see "Editing Images".
● The scanner interface to be used while scanning
Selecting the Scanning Interface
ABBYY FineReader can communicate with a scanner in the following ways:
1. Via the ABBYY FineReader interface.
In this case, the ABBYY FineReader interface is used to set up scanning mode. The following settings are available:
● Resolution, Brightness, and Color Mode.
● Image preprocessing options:
● Detect page orientation. Enable this feature to automatically detect page orientation while scanning.
● Split dual pages. Enable this feature to automatically split dual pages into separate images.
● Enable image preprocessing. Enable this feature to perform automatic processing of scanned images.
● Multi–page document scanning options:
● Use the Automatic Document Feeder (ADF)
● Apply automatic duplex scanning (if supported by the scanner)
● Set the page scanning delay in seconds.
Note. The Use ABBYY FineReader interface option may not be available for some scanner models.
2. Via a TWAIN interface or the scanner's WIA driver.
In this case, scanning options are selected from the scanner driver's dialog box. Consult the technical documentation provided
with the scanner for more information about the dialog box and its components.
Important! Consult the scanner manual for proper setup. Make sure to install the software supplied with the scanner.
The ABBYY FineReader scanning interface is used by default.
To change the scanning interface:
1. Open the Options dialog box from the Scan/Open tab (Tools>Options…).
2. Set the toggle switch in the Scanner group to either: Use ABBYY FineReader interface or Use native interface.
Tuning Brightness
ABBYY FineReader will display a warning message during scanning if the brightness setting is incorrect. You may also need to
adjust the brightness setting when scanning in black–and–white mode.
To adjust the brightness:
1. Click the Scan button.
2. In the dialog box, specify the desired brightness.
Depending on which scanning interface is being used, either the ABBYY FineReader scanning dialog box or the scanner
driver dialog box will open. A medium value of around 50% should suffice in most cases.
3. Proceed to scan the document.
If the resulting image contains too many "torn" or "glued" letters, troubleshoot using the table below.
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
Your image looks like this Recommendations
This image is suitable for OCR.
characters are "torn" or very light
characters are distorted, glued together, or filled
● Lower the brightness to make the image darker.
● Scan in grayscale. Brightness will be tuned automatically.
● Increase the brightness to make the image brighter.
● Scan in grayscale. Brightness will be tuned automatically.
Font is Too Small
For optimal OCR results, scan documents printed in very small fonts at higher resolutions.
1. Click the Scan button.
2. In the dialog box, specify the desired resolution.
Depending on which scanning interface is being used, either the ABBYY FineReader scanning dialog box or the scanner
driver dialog box will open.
3. Proceed to scan the document.
You may wish to compare the images of the same document obtained at different resolutions by opening them in the Zoom
window in Pixel–to–Pixel mode (View>Zoom Window>Scale>Pixel–to–Pixel)
Source image Recommended resolution
300 dpi for typical texts (printed in fonts of size 10pt or larger)
400–600 dpi for texts printed in smaller fonts (9pt or smaller)
Adjusting Image Resolution
The Image Resolution indicates how detailed the image is. Resolution is normally measured in dpi (dots per inch).
The best resolution for OCR is 300 dpi.
Important! For best OCR results, vertical and horizontal resolutions must be the same.
Setting the resolution too high (over 600 dpi) increases the recognition time. Increasing the resolution does not yield substantially
improved recognition results. Setting an extremely low resolution (less than 150 dpi) adversely affects OCR quality.
You may need to adjust the resolution of your images if:
● The resolution of your image is less than 250 dpi or higher than 600 dpi.
● The resolution of your image is non–standard.
For example, faxes may have a resolution of 204 x 96 dpi.
To adjust the resolution:
1. Click the Scan button.
2. Depending on the scanning interface used, the ABBYY FineReader interface or the scanner driver interface will appear.
Choose the desired resolution in the scanning dialog box.
3. Scan the document.
Tip. Resolution corrections are also possible via the Edit Image dialog box (Page>Edit Page Image…).
Scanning Facing Pages
When scanning facing pages from a book, both pages will appear in a single image. See Sample Image.
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
To improve OCR quality, split the facing pages into two separate images. The program features a special mode that automatically
splits two facing pages into two separate images in the ABBYY FineReader document.
Scanning facing pages or dual pages:
1. Open the Options dialog box from the Scan/Open tab (Tools>Options…).
2. Check the Split dual pages option in the Image Processing group.
3. Scan the pages.
The automatic splitting option is also available in the image opening dialog (File>Open PDF File/Image…) and ABBYY
FineReader's scanning dialog box. For details, see Selecting the Scanning Interface.
Important! If the image contains text in Chinese or Japanese, use the Edit Image dialog box to split pages manually. These types
of images are not supported by the automatic page splitting feature.
To split facing pages manually:
1. Open the Edit Image dialog box (Page>Edit Page Image…).
2. Use the options in the Split group to split the page.
Photographing Documents
Taking photos of documents requires some skill and practice. Your camera's features and shooting conditions are also important.
Note. For detailed information about the your camera's settings, please refer to the documentation supplied with your camera.
Before taking pictures:
1. Make sure that the entire page fits within the frame.
2. Make sure that the lighting is evenly distributed across the page and that there are no dark areas or shadows.
3. Position the lens parallel to the plane of the document and point it toward the center of the document. Smooth out the paper
(e.g. at the spine of the book) if possible.
The topics below outline the required camera specifications and shooting modes.
Digital Camera Requirements
Minimum requirements
● Matrix size: calculated in proportion to the image page format at the rate of 2 million pixels per A4 page. Smaller size
matrices may be sufficient for photographing small format documents such as business cards.
● Variable focal distance. Fixed focus cameras (focused to infinity) should not be used to photograph documents. These types of
cameras are commonly built into mobile phones and PDAs.
Recommended settings:
● Matrix size: calculated in proportion to the image page format at the rate of 5 million pixels per A4 page
● Flash disable feature
● Manual aperture control, i.e., availability of Av or full manual mode
● Manual focusing
● An anti–shake system or use of a tripod is recommended
● Optical zoom
Photography Tips
Lighting
It is best to shoot in the daylight or in a well–lit area. When shooting with artificial lighting, use two light sources positioned to
avoid shadows.
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ABBYY FineReader 10 User’s Guide
Camera Positioning
A tripod is recommended for shooting documents. Position the lens parallel to the plane of the document and point it toward the
center of the text.
At full optical zoom, the distance between the camera and the document must be sufficient to fit the entire document into the
frame. This distance is usually approximately 50–60 cm.
Flash
If there is enough light, turn the flash off to prevent sharp highlights and shadows. When using the flash in poor lighting
conditions, make sure to shoot from a distance (approximately 50 cm).
Note. We suggest combining the flash with background lighting.
Important! The flash must not be used to photograph glossy documents.
White Balance
If possible, set the custom white balance by aiming at the document paper. Otherwise, select the white balance mode which best
suits the current lighting conditions.
What if...
Not Enough Light
When shooting in poor lighting conditions:
● Set the largest Aperture Value by opening the diaphragm all the way. Note that it is better to use higher aperture values while
shooting in bright daylight for crisper images.
● Set a high ISO Value for higher light sensitivity.
● Use the Manual Focus since the automatic focus may fail (failure to focus causes blurry images).
The picture is too dark and too soft
Try to use brighter lighting. Otherwise, set a lower aperture value.
The picture is not sharp enough
Autofocus may not work properly in poor lighting or when shooting from a close distance. Try to use brighter lighting. If this does
not help, try focusing the camera manually.
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