Photograph: Marc SimonTransforming printed documents into editable text requires an optical character recognition program. The basic OCR apps that come with most scanners are fine for simple tasks, but more-complicated documents require a full-featured package like Iris's Readiris Pro 10.
The most notable improvements in version 10 of this $130 application are two new recognition engines--one for hand-printed text and the other for bar-code reading. The latest Readiris also supports a wider variety of output formats; has a simple, wizard-driven interface; and offers extensive PDF support.
The big letdown in the shipping version I evaluated was Readiris's hand-printing recognition feature. It can decipher only separated characters (block letters), not cursive text. Even when I followed these rules, I got lackluster results. In its best test run, the accuracy rate was only 88 percent.
Readiris's speed and accuracy in the other standard OCR tests I conducted (including bar-code reading), however, were exemplary. It took a scant 31 seconds to convert a ten-page document into a text file, with very few errors.
With its easy interface and speedy OCR conversion, I'd recommend Readiris to anyone who needs to convert documents to electronic form. But I'd advise new users to lower their expectations about transforming hand-printed notes into editable text.
Easy, proficient OCR for most documents; hand-printing recognition remains limited.
Price when reviewed: $130
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