I.R.I.S. Readiris Pro 12 User Manual

Readiris

User Guide

TM

Pro 12

ReadirisTM Pro 12 – User Guide

Table of Contents

Copyrights ........................................................................................... 1

Chapter 1 Introducing Readiris ................................................ 3

Save time, avoid retyping.................................................. 3

The Readiris series ............................................................ 6

Chapter 2 Installing Read iris .................................................... 9

System requirements ......................................................... 9

Software installation ....................................................... 10

Uninstalling the software ................................................ 11

Software registration ....................................................... 11

Product support ............................................................... 12

Chapter 3 Getting started ........................................................ 13

Running Readiris ............................................................ 13

Using the OCR Wizard ................................................... 13

User interface .................................................................. 15

Changing the user interface language ............................. 17 

Chapter 4 The Readiris SmartTasks ...................................... 19

Using the Readiris Sm artTasks ....................................... 19

Chapter 5 Scanning documents ............................................... 23

Selecting the options ....................................................... 23

Opening image files ........................................................ 24

iii

Table of Contents

Scanning paper documents .............................................. 26

Chapter 6 Adjusting scanned documents ............................... 33

Chapter 7 Saving documents as image files ........................... 39

Chapter 8 Windowing documents ........................................... 41

Windowing documents automatically ............................. 41

Windowing documents manually .................................... 43

Using windowing templates ............................................ 47

Chapter 9 Recognizing documents ......................................... 51

Introduction ..................................................................... 51

Selecting the document language .................................... 52

Defining the document characteristics ............................ 54

Using interactive learning ............................................... 56

Using font dictionaries .................................................... 58

Chapter 10 Formatting and saving documents ...................... 61



iv

Formatting documents .................................................... 61

Formatting text documents .............................................. 63

Formatting table-based documents ................................. 67

Creating PDF documents ................................................ 71

Selecting the PDF options ............................................... 72

iHQC compressing PDF documents ............................... 73

Repurposing PDF documents .......................................... 75

ReadirisTM Pro 12 – User Guide

Creating XPS documents ................................................ 75

Selecting the XPS options ............................................... 77

iHQC compressing XPS documents ............................... 78

Selecting the graphics options ......................................... 79

Chapter 11 Saving and loading settings ................................. 81

Chapter 12 Recognizing multipage documents ...................... 83

Opening and recognizing multiple image files ................ 83

Scanning and recognizing multipage documents ............ 85

Editing multipage documents .......................................... 86

Chapter 13 Recognizing handprinted text ............................. 89

Chapter 14 Recognizing barcodes ........................................... 93

Index .................................................................................... 95



v

ReadirisTM Pro 12 – User Guide

Copyrights

ReadirisPro12-dgi-110209-04

Copyrights © 1987-2009 I.R.I.S. All Rights Reserved.

I.R.I.S. owns the copyrights to the Readiris software, to the online help system
and to this publication.

The information contained in this document is the property of I.R.I.S. Its
content is subject to change without notice and does not represent a
commitment on the part of I.R.I.S. The software described in this document is
furnished under a license agreement which states the terms of use of this
product. The software may be used or copied only in accordance with the
terms of that agreement. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
transmitted, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into another language
without the prior written consent of I.R.I.S.

This user guide utilizes fictitious names for purposes of demonstration;
references to actual persons, companies or organizations are strictly
coincidental.

Trademarks

The Readiris logo and Readiris are trademarks of Image Recognition

Integrated Systems S.A.

OCR, ICR and barcode technology by I.R.I.S.

AutoFormat and Linguistic technology by I.R.I.S.

BCR and field analysis technology by I.R.I.S.

iHQC compression technology by I.R.I.S.

XML parser developed by Apache. This product includes software developed

by the Apache Software Foundation.

All other products mentioned in this user guide are trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective owners.

1

ReadirisTM Pro 12 – User Guide

CHAPTER 1

NTRODUCING READIRIS

I

SAVE TIME, AVOID RETYPING

Congratulations on acquiring Readiris. This software package will
undoubtedly be of great help in recapturing your texts, tables,
graphics, barcodes and handprinted texts.

As efficient as computers are, you have to key in your information
first. If you have ever retyped a 15 page report or a large table of
figures, you know how tedious and time-consuming it can be. Use
this state-of-the-art OCR package to automatically convert paper
documents or scanned image files into text searchable and editable
documents that can be archived and shared. Two recognition modes
are available: one ensures maximal speed, the other guarantees
optimal OCR accuracy.

Scan a printed or typed document, indicate the zones you want to
recognize with Readiris - or have the system detect them for you ­execute the character recognition and export the document to your
word processor. Documents composed of many pages are processed
from start to finish in a single effort. A few mouse clicks beat long
hours of work as Readiris converts your paper documents into
editable computer files: it’s up to 40 times faster than manual
retyping.

The wizard smoothly guides you through the settings required to
operate Readiris, allowing you to obtain quick and easy results. Or
use the SmartTasks to speed up the process even more. You can
send the reading results directly to your word processor or

3

Chapter 1 – Introducing Readiris

spreadsheet, archive them as PDF or XPS files, etc. To recognize
faxes and convert PDF documents, drag their image files from
Windows Explorer to the Readiris application window. Or send an
image promptly to Readiris via the context menu.

Readiris recognizes tabular data and recreates them as worksheets
in your spreadsheet software or as table objects inside your word
processor; your numeric data are immediately ready for further
processing.

Readiris is based on the most advanced recognition technologies.
Font-independent text recognition is complemented by self-learning
techniques. The system is able to learn new characters and words
through contextual and linguistic analysis. This means that the OCR
accuracy of the recognition system will improve as it goes along.

Readiris supports up to 128 languages: all American and European
languages are supported, including the Central-European, Baltic and
Cyrillic languages as well as Greek and Turkish. Optionally,
Readiris can read Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew documents and four
Asian languages - Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese and
Korean. Readiris even copes with mixed alphabets: the software
detects “Western” words that occur in Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic,
Hebrew and Asian documents - many untranscribable proper
names, brand names, etc. are written using the Western symbols.

Readiris uses linguistics during the recognition phase, not
afterwards. As a result, Readiris recognizes all kinds of documents
with top accuracy, including low-quality documents, faxes and dot
matrix printouts. It copes beautifully with badly scanned and copied
documents containing too light or dark font shapes. Joined
characters are resolved while fragmented characters, such as dot
matrix symbols, are recomposed.

Besides that, Readiris has an (optional) user verification function.
When activated, the user verification function ("Interactive
learning") not only flags the characters the recognition system isn't
sure of but also allows to increase the system's accuracy. All

4

ReadirisTM Pro 12 – User Guide

solutions you confirm are memorized, increasing the system speed
and confidence and rendering the system more intelligent as you go
along. This powerful learning tool also allows you to train Readiris
on special characters such as mathematical symbols and dingbats
and to handle distorted fonts.

To increase your productivity further, Readiris not only recognizes
your texts, but can format them for you as well. Various levels of
formatting are available. When you make use of “autoformatting”,
Readiris recreates a facsimile copy of the scanned document: the
word, paragraph and page formatting of the original document are
retained. Similar typefaces are used, the point sizes and type styles
as used in the source document are maintained across the
recognition. The placement of columns, text blocks and graphics
follows your original documents. Readiris can even include the
background photo of a scanned page in the recognized document.
And as Readiris supports grayscale and color scanning effortlessly,
you can recapture any graphics - be they line art, black-and-white
photos or color illustrations. When a document contains tables,
Readiris reorganizes them in real cells and recreates the cell borders
of the original tables.

In other words, Readiris allows you to archive a true copy of your
documents, be it editable and compact text files instead of scanned
images.

Barcodes that occur on a scanned page can also be read, and the
same goes for handprinted text, provided you write well-spaced
“block letters”.

Readiris is Twain compliant and supports a wide range of flatbed
and sheetfed scanners, “all-in-one” devices or “MFPs”
(”multifunctional peripherals”) and digital cameras. Interval
scanning allows you to scan multipage documents efficiently when
your scanner is not equipped with a document feeder.

5

Chapter 1 – Introducing Readiris

THE READIRIS SERIES

The table below gives an overview of the available versions:

Readiris Home 12

Limited features

25 recognition languages

Supports PDF, DCX, DJV, DJVU, JPG,
JPEG, J2C, J2K, JP2, PNG, TIF, TIFF ,
BMP, PCX

Generates PDF Image-Text, DOCX,
ODT, WordML, SpreadsheetML, RTF,
HTM, XML, TXT, TIFF, etc. output

Readiris Pro 12 Readiris Corporate 12

Basic features Basic features

128 recognition languages 128 recognition languages

Supports PDF, DCX, DJV, DJVU, JPG,
JPEG, J2C, J2K, JP2, PNG, TIF, TIFF ,
BMP, PCX

Generates four types of PDF files , PDF­iHQC (level I), four types of XPS, XPS­iHQC (level I), DOCX, ODT, XLS,
WordML, SpreadsheetML, RTF, HTM,
XML, TXT, TIFF, etc.

Supports PDF, DCX, DJV, DJVU, JPG,
JPEG, J2C, J2K, JP2, PNG, TIF, TIFF ,
BMP, PCX

Generates four types of PDF files , PDF­iHQC (level I-III), PDF/A, four types of
XPS, XPS-iHQC (level I), DOCX, ODT,
XLS, WordML, SpreadsheetML, RTF,
HTM, XML, TXT, TIFF, etc.

Large volume recognition

Automated processing

Document indexing

Business card recognition

6

ReadirisTM Pro 12 – User Guide

Readiris Pro 12 Asian Readiris Corporate 12 Asian

Basic features Basic features

128 recognition languages 128 recognition languages

Supports PDF, DCX, DJV, DJVU, JPG,
JPEG, J2C, J2K, JP2, PNG, TIF, TIFF ,
BMP, PCX.

Generates four types of PDF files , PDF­iHQC (level I), four types of XPS, XPS­iHQC (level I), DOCX, ODT, XLS,
WordML, SpreadsheetML, RTF, HTM,
XML, TXT, TIFF, etc.

Traditional and Simp lified Chinese
recognition

Japanese recognition

Korean recognition

Business card recognition

Readiris Pro 12 Middle-East* Readiris Corporate 12 Middle-East*

Supports PDF, DCX, DJV, DJVU, JPG,
JPEG, J2C, J2K, JP2, PNG, TIF, TIFF ,
BMP, PCX.

Generates four types of PDF files , PDF­iHQC (level I-III), PDF/A, four types of
XPS, XPS-iHQC (level I), DOCX, ODT,
XLS, WordML, SpreadsheetML, RTF,
HTM, XML, TXT, TIFF, etc.

Traditional and Simp lified Chinese
recognition

Japanese recognition

Korean recognition

Large volume recognition

Automated processing

Document indexing

Basic features Basic features

128 recognition languages

Supports PDF, DCX, DJV, DJVU, JPG,
JPEG, J2C, J2K, JP2, PNG, TIF, TIFF ,

128 recognition languages

Supports PDF, DCX, DJV, DJVU, JPG,
JPEG, J2C, J2K, JP2, PNG, TIF, TIFF ,

7

Chapter 1 – Introducing Readiris

BMP, PCX.

Generates four types of PDF files , PDF­iHQC (level I), four types of XPS, XPS­iHQC (level I), DOCX, ODT, XLS,
WordML, SpreadsheetML, RTF, HTM,
XML, TXT, TIFF, etc.

Arabic and Farsi recognition

Hebrew recognition

Business card recognition

(*) No Mac version available

BMP, PCX.

Generates four types of PDF files , PDF­iHQC (level I-III), PDF/A, four types of
XPS, XPS-iHQC (level I), DOCX, ODT,
XLS, WordML, SpreadsheetML, RTF,
HTM, XML, TXT, TIFF, etc.

Arabic and Farsi recognition

Hebrew recognition

Large volume recognition

Automated processing

Document indexing

8

ReadirisTM Pro 12 – User Guide

CHAPTER 2

NSTALLING READIRIS

I

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

This is the minimal system configuration required to use Readiris:

 a 486-based Intel PC or compatible. A Pentium-based PC is

recommended.

 256 MB RAM.
 120 MB free disk space.

(105 MB of disk space suffices when you do not install the sample
files)

 the Windows Vista, Windows XP or Windows 2000 operating

system.

Note that some scanner drivers may not work under the latest
version(s) of Windows. See the documentation supplied with your
scanner to find out which platforms are supported.

9

Chapter 2 – Installing Readiris

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION

To install the software:

 Log on to Windows as administrator or make sure you have the

necessary administration rights.

 Connect your scanner to your PC and install the corresponding

software.
Test your scanner. If you experience any problem contact your
scanner manufacturer.

 Insert the Readiris CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive and follow

the on-screen instructions to install the software.

 Click Readiris to start the installation (additional software

products are offered: Copernic Desktop Search Home Edition
and Cardiris 4 LE)

 Select the installation language and click OK.
 Accept the terms of the license agreement.
 A complete and a custom installation are offered. Select the

required options and click Next each time you are ready to go to
the next screen.
All lexicons and sample images will be installed by default, as
well as an electronic user guide and online help.

 Click Finish to complete the installation.

The submenu I.R.I.S. Applications - Readiris on the Windows
Programs menu is created automatically by the installation
program.
The installation program also creates a shortcut to the Readiris
application on the Windows desktop.

10

ReadirisTM 12 Pro – User Guide

 Repeat the installation process to install any additional software

from the CD-ROM.

UNINSTALLING THE SOFTWARE

There is only one correct way to uninstall Readiris: by using the
Windows (un)install wizard. You are strongly recommended not to
uninstall Readiris or any of its software modules by manually
erasing the program files.

To uninstall Readiris:

 Close the application.
 On the Start menu, click Control Panel.
 Under the Programs icon, click Uninstall a program.
 Select Readiris in the list and click the Uninstall button.
 Follow the on-screen instructions.

SOFTWARE REGISTRATION

Remember to register your Readiris license. By doing so, you will:
 be kept informed of future product developments and related

I.R.I.S. products;

 be entitled to product support;

11

Chapter 2 – Installing Readiris

 be entitled to special offers on I.R.I.S. products.

To register:

Use the Registration wizard on the Register menu. Follow the on­screen instructions.

PRODUCT SUPPORT

Once you have registered your product, you are entitled to product
support from I.R.I.S. on all basic software functionalities. Contact
I.R.I.S. at:

Europe:
[e-mail]
Tel:[phone]

USA:
[e-mail]
Tel.:[phone]

Asia-Pacific:
[e-mail]
Tel.: [phone]

12

ReadirisTM Pro 12 – User Guide

CHAPTER 3

ETTING STARTED

G

RUNNING READIRIS

To run Readiris:

 Start Readiris from the Windows Start menu or double-click the

shortcut on your desktop.

 Click anywhere in the startup screen to launch Readiris.

The OCR Wizard automatically opens.

USING THE OCR WIZARD

The OCR Wizard allows you to define all the settings needed to
operate Readiris efficiently.

When you start Readiris, click anywhere in the startup screen to
start the OCR Wizard.

13

Chapter 3 – Getting started

Step 1

Select the image source.
You can capture images using your scanner or open image files.
Select the rotation and deskewing options you want to use.

For more information, see the section Selecting the options.

To familiarize yourself with Readiris, use the sample images provided
with the software. They can be found on the Readiris CD-ROM and in
the subfolder Samples of the Readiris installation folder.

Click Next to go to the next step.

Step 2

In case you selected a scanner, click the Change button to select the
scanner settings.

For more information on the scanner settings, see the section
Scanning paper documents.

Click OK to save the settings.
Click Next to go to the next step.

Step 3

Click the Change button to change the document language. The
document language is set to American English by default.
Select the required language or language combination and
secondary languages in the list and click OK.
Use the slider to set the required Speed-Accuracy settings.

For more information, see the section Selecting the document
language.

Click OK to save the settings.
Click Next to go to the next step.

Step 4

Click the Change button to change the output format or target
application. The default target application is Microsoft Word.

14

ReadirisTM Pro 12 – User Guide

Select the required output format or application in the Send to or
External file list.

Click the various tabs and select the options of your choice. Options
that are unavailable for the chosen format/application appear
dimmed.

For more information, see the chapter Formatting and saving
documents.

Click OK to save the settings.
Click Next to go to the next step.

Step 5
Click GO to open/scan and recognize the document.

USER INTERFACE

To explore the Readiris interface, click anywhere in the Readiris
startup screen and click Cancel when the OCR Wizard launches.

The empty Readiris interface will be displayed.

15

Chapter 3 – Getting started

The Readiris interface is composed of:
 the SmartTasks (in the middle)

The SmartTasks are predefined commands that allow you to use
the most frequent Readiris functions at the touch of a button.

Click the SmartTask you want to use to scan, recognize and send
your documents to the target application or output format of your
choice.

The SmartTasks apply default settings but can be configured
easily by right-clicking to fit more particular needs.

 the main toolbar (left toolbar)

Use the main toolbar commands and options to scan and
recognize documents manually.
The order in which you are advised to do so is given in the OCR
Wizard.

 the image toolbar (right toolbar)

Use the image toolbar buttons to edit documents in the Readiris
interface.
Point to the different buttons to display their tooltips.

When a document has been opened or scanned in Readiris, three
main zones are added to the interface:

 the page toolbar (right of the main toolbar)

The page toolbar displays the page thumbnails, which provide settings
information if pointed to.

 the image window (in the middle)
 the document panel (at the bottom)

16

ReadirisTM Pro 12 – User Guide

The document panel displays statistical information about the
documents that are open in Readiris, such as the scan and OCR time,
the resolution, width and height of the documents etc.

CHANGING THE USER INTERFACE LANGUAGE

The user interface of Readiris is available in a wide range of
languages.

To change the user interface language:

 On the Settings menu, click User Interface Language.
 In the Language list, select the required language, then click OK

to confirm.

Note: If you selected an incorrect language, click Ctrl+U. The
Language dialog box will open and you will be able to select another
language in the list.

17

ReadirisTM Pro 12 – User Guide

CHAPTER 4

HE READIRIS SMARTTASKS

T

USING THE READIRIS SMARTTASKS

When starting Readiris, click anywhere in the Readiris startup
screen and click Cancel when the OCR Wizard launches. The
Readiris SmartTasks will be displayed.

The SmartTasks are predefined commands that allow you to use the
most frequent Readiris functions at the touch of a button.

Simply click the SmartTasks to scan documents or image files to
the target applications and output formats of your choice.

19

Chapter 4 – The Readiris SmartTasks

The various SmartTask buttons allow you to:

1. Scan and recognize documents and send them directly to

Word for text processing;

Microsoft Word is the default target application. See the section
Formatting text documents to learn more about the other available
applications.

2. Scan and recognize documents and send them directly to

OpenOffice for text processing;

OpenOffice.org Writer is the default target application. See the section
Formatting text documents to learn more about the other available
applications.

3. Scan and recognize tables and send them directly to Excel and

other spreadsheets;

Microsoft Excel is the default target application. See the section
Formatting table-based documents to learn more.

4. Scan and recognize documents and archive them as PDF

files;

Adobe Acrobat PDF Image-Text is the default output format. See the
section Creating PDF documents to learn more about the other
available formats.

5. Scan and recognize documents and archive them as XPS

files;

XPS Image-Text is the default output format. See the section
Creating XPS documents to learn more about the other available
formats.

6. Scan and recognize documents and send them directly by e-

mail.

20

ReadirisTM Pro 12 – User Guide

The documents will be sent as PDF Image-Text by default via your
default e-mail application. See the section Formatting documents to
learn more about the other available formats.

Note that the SmartTasks apply predefined settings but can be
configured easily to fit more particular needs.

To configure the SmartTasks:

 Right-click the SmartTask you want to use.
 Select Scanner or Image files as image source.

o When you select Scanner, Readiris will start your scanner

as soon as you click the SmartTask. The scanned
document(s) will be displayed in the interface, processed
and saved.

Your scanner must be configured correctly in order for the
SmartTasks to work.

To do so:

 Click the Scanner button on the main toolbar.
 Click Scanner model and select your scanner in the

list.

If your scanner is not in the list, select Twain other
models.

 Click Configure if applicable to select the Twain

source.

 Then click OK to save the settings.

For more information on the scanner settings and on scanning paper

documents, see the section Scanning paper documents.

21

Chapter 4 – The Readiris SmartTasks

o When you select Image files and click the SmartTask,

Readiris opens the Input dialog box in which you can
select the image files you want to process.

For more information on opening image files, see the section
Opening image files.

 Click Configure to change the output format and its options.

Note that the available output formats and options depend on the
selected SmartTask.

See the chapter Formatting and saving documents to learn more
about the available formats and options.

 When you are done configuring the SmartTasks, use the buttons

on the main toolbar to specify the language settings and image
enhancement options, and if still needed the Scanner settings.

For more information on the above-mentioned settings, see the
sections Selecting the options, Scanning paper documents and
Selecting the document language.

 Finally, click the SmartTask to use it.

Readiris will go through the entire recognition process
automatically.

22

ReadirisTM Pro 12 – User Guide

CHAPTER 5

CANNING DOCUMENTS

S

SELECTING THE OPTIONS

Before scanning paper documents or opening image files, you can
select several image enhancement options. When enabled, these
options will be applied during the opening and scanning of
documents.

Operation

 Click the Options button on the main toolbar to select several

image enhancement options.

o Click Page Deskewing to straighten pages scanned at an

angle.

o Point to Rotation and determine whether you want

Readiris to rotate pages automatically or 90° to the left,
90° to the right or 180°.

Note that these two options slow down the scanning process
somewhat. Only select them when necessary.

o Page Analysis is enabled by default.

23

Chapter 5 – Scanning documents

This way, scanned or opened images will be split up in windows
automatically.

You can also use the windowing tools on the image toolbar to
modify the page analysis results or to window documents manually.
For more information, see the chapter Windowing documents.

 When you are done defining all the settings (Scanner settings,

Options), click the Scan or Open button to scan documents or

open image files.

Note that the above-mentioned options are also available on the

Settings menu.

OPENING IMAGE FILES

With Readiris you can either process paper documents you scan
with your scanner or process already existing images files of
various formats.

To open existing image files:

 Click the Open button to search for image files.

24