ocrxtr recognision software

ocrxtr recognision software

[Christopher Moore]

Hello listers,
I recently saw a rave review of the ocrxtr software for linux from someone
on this list.  I looked at the vividata site and couldn't find any prices.
That is generally a bad sign meaning the price is beyond affordable for an
individual.  If anyone has any idea of prices, I'd be inteerested either on
or off list.  

Thanks
Chris
-- 
The Moon is Waxing Crescent (47% of Full)

Re: ocrxtr recognision software

[Thomas D. Ward]

Hi, OCR Shop is $$99 for a single computer license.If you order it also tell
them you need the free command line scanner tool to make it accessible with
speakup/emacspeak.
A couple notes about OCR Shop. It only appears to work on Red Hat distros
and Mandrake, and you need a scsi scanner compatible with the OCR Shop
drivers.


----- Original Message -----
From: Christopher Moore <christopher.h.moore@verizon.net>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2003 12:04 PM
Subject: ocrxtr recognision software


> Hello listers,
> I recently saw a rave review of the ocrxtr software for linux from someone
> on this list.  I looked at the vividata site and couldn't find any prices.
> That is generally a bad sign meaning the price is beyond affordable for an
> individual.  If anyone has any idea of prices, I'd be inteerested either
on
> or off list.
>
> Thanks
> Chris
> --
> The Moon is Waxing Crescent (47% of Full)
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: ocrxtr recognision software

[ccrawford]

What does this software do?  

-- charlie Crawford. 
On Wed, 9 Apr 2003, Christopher Moore wrote:

> Hello listers,
> I recently saw a rave review of the ocrxtr software for linux from someone
> on this list.  I looked at the vividata site and couldn't find any prices.
> That is generally a bad sign meaning the price is beyond affordable for an
> individual.  If anyone has any idea of prices, I'd be inteerested either on
> or off list.  
> 
> Thanks
> Chris
> 

Re: ocrxtr recognision software

[Terry Klarich]

Ocrxtr is a unix filter program which does no more than take as input a graphical file of many formats and runs optical character
recognition on it.  It's output is an ascii text.  Very simple.

One need only to obtain a scanner of their own choosing, install and configure sane.  Send the resulting tiff files to ocrxtr.

I've used the Kurtzwiel reading edge and Aladen Ambassador for years.  This product far exceeds these products capibilities.

The product costs $300 if you are blind and using it for home use.  There are several add-on's for $50 each.  These are mainly for
output of specialized formats.  However, the one you might be interested in is the pdf input license.  This allows you to use ocrxtr
to read pdf files.  This is superior to pdf2txt because ocrxtr will perform ocr on the graphical areas of a pdf.

Terry
On Thu, 10 Apr 2003 06:17:15 -0400 (EDT)you write:
>What does this software do?  
>
>-- charlie Crawford. 
>On Wed, 9 Apr 2003, Christopher Moore wrote:
>
>> Hello listers,
>> I recently saw a rave review of the ocrxtr software for linux from someone
>> on this list.  I looked at the vividata site and couldn't find any prices.
>> That is generally a bad sign meaning the price is beyond affordable for an
>> individual.  If anyone has any idea of prices, I'd be inteerested either on
>> or off list.  
>> 
>> Thanks
>> Chris
>> 
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Speakup mailing list
>Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
>http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: ocrxtr recognision software

[Terry Klarich]

I messed up.  The cost is $250.  I was thinking $300 because I purchased the yearly maintenance.

Terry
On Thu, 10 Apr 2003 08:26:51 -0500you write:
>Ocrxtr is a unix filter program which does no more than take as input a graphical file of many formats and runs optical character
>recognition on it.  It's output is an ascii text.  Very simple.
>
>One need only to obtain a scanner of their own choosing, install and configure sane.  Send the resulting tiff files to ocrxtr.
>
>I've used the Kurtzwiel reading edge and Aladen Ambassador for years.  This product far exceeds these products capibilities.
>
>The product costs $300 if you are blind and using it for home use.  There are several add-on's for $50 each.  These are mainly for
>output of specialized formats.  However, the one you might be interested in is the pdf input license.  This allows you to use ocrx
>tr
>to read pdf files.  This is superior to pdf2txt because ocrxtr will perform ocr on the graphical areas of a pdf.
>
>Terry
>On Thu, 10 Apr 2003 06:17:15 -0400 (EDT)you write:
>>What does this software do?  
>>
>>-- charlie Crawford. 
>>On Wed, 9 Apr 2003, Christopher Moore wrote:
>>
>>> Hello listers,
>>> I recently saw a rave review of the ocrxtr software for linux from someone
>>> on this list.  I looked at the vividata site and couldn't find any prices.
>>> That is generally a bad sign meaning the price is beyond affordable for an
>>> individual.  If anyone has any idea of prices, I'd be inteerested either on
>>> or off list.  
>>> 
>>> Thanks
>>> Chris
>>> 
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Speakup mailing list
>>Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
>>http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Speakup mailing list
>Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
>http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: ocrxtr recognision software

[Alex Snow]

Just curious, has anyone tried jocr?
http://jocr.sourceforge.net


--
A message from the system administrator: "I've upped my priority, now up yours!"
On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Terry Klarich wrote:

> Ocrxtr is a unix filter program which does no more than take as input a graphical file of many formats and runs optical character
> recognition on it.  It's output is an ascii text.  Very simple.
>
> One need only to obtain a scanner of their own choosing, install and configure sane.  Send the resulting tiff files to ocrxtr.
>
> I've used the Kurtzwiel reading edge and Aladen Ambassador for years.  This product far exceeds these products capibilities.
>
> The product costs $300 if you are blind and using it for home use.  There are several add-on's for $50 each.  These are mainly for
> output of specialized formats.  However, the one you might be interested in is the pdf input license.  This allows you to use ocrxtr
> to read pdf files.  This is superior to pdf2txt because ocrxtr will perform ocr on the graphical areas of a pdf.
>
> Terry
> On Thu, 10 Apr 2003 06:17:15 -0400 (EDT)you write:
> >What does this software do?
> >
> >-- charlie Crawford.
> >On Wed, 9 Apr 2003, Christopher Moore wrote:
> >
> >> Hello listers,
> >> I recently saw a rave review of the ocrxtr software for linux from someone
> >> on this list.  I looked at the vividata site and couldn't find any prices.
> >> That is generally a bad sign meaning the price is beyond affordable for an
> >> individual.  If anyone has any idea of prices, I'd be inteerested either on
> >> or off list.
> >>
> >> Thanks
> >> Chris
> >>
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Speakup mailing list
> >Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> >http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: ocrxtr recognision software

[Igor Gueths]

Alex have you tried jocr? if so how well does it work?

May you code in the power of the source,
may the kernel, libraries, and utilities be with you,
throughout all distributions until the end of the epoch.

On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Alex Snow wrote:

> Just curious, has anyone tried jocr?
> http://jocr.sourceforge.net
>
>
> --
> A message from the system administrator: "I've upped my priority, now up yours!"
> On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Terry Klarich wrote:
>
> > Ocrxtr is a unix filter program which does no more than take as input a graphical file of many formats and runs optical character
> > recognition on it.  It's output is an ascii text.  Very simple.
> >
> > One need only to obtain a scanner of their own choosing, install and configure sane.  Send the resulting tiff files to ocrxtr.
> >
> > I've used the Kurtzwiel reading edge and Aladen Ambassador for years.  This product far exceeds these products capibilities.
> >
> > The product costs $300 if you are blind and using it for home use.  There are several add-on's for $50 each.  These are mainly for
> > output of specialized formats.  However, the one you might be interested in is the pdf input license.  This allows you to use ocrxtr
> > to read pdf files.  This is superior to pdf2txt because ocrxtr will perform ocr on the graphical areas of a pdf.
> >
> > Terry
> > On Thu, 10 Apr 2003 06:17:15 -0400 (EDT)you write:
> > >What does this software do?
> > >
> > >-- charlie Crawford.
> > >On Wed, 9 Apr 2003, Christopher Moore wrote:
> > >
> > >> Hello listers,
> > >> I recently saw a rave review of the ocrxtr software for linux from someone
> > >> on this list.  I looked at the vividata site and couldn't find any prices.
> > >> That is generally a bad sign meaning the price is beyond affordable for an
> > >> individual.  If anyone has any idea of prices, I'd be inteerested either on
> > >> or off list.
> > >>
> > >> Thanks
> > >> Chris
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > >_______________________________________________
> > >Speakup mailing list
> > >Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > >http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> > >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: ocrxtr recognision software

[Adam Myrow]

I wouldn't suggest jocr AKA gocr for anything except experimentation.  I
can print out a page on my inkjet printer and scan it.  If I try to
recognize it with gocr, the output is mostly underline characters with a
few words.  You can sometimes get the gist of the text with some
imagination.  I have an ancient version of Omnipage PRO under Windows
which does far better.  Granted, there are a lot of options you can pass
to gocr, but they only seem to make things worse.  All the different modes
seem to make no difference.  I would suggest that somebody who understands
how OCR works could seriously improve the software, but I am not that
person.  I have halfway decent programming skills, but no absolutely
nothing about how OCR works.  BTW, where does one obtain this OCRXTRA
program?  Will it run on Slackware, or is it only functional in Redhat?

Re: ocrxtr recognision software

[Thomas D. Ward]

Well, I felt the ocr quality was vary pore with gocr also known as jocr.
Though I am use to scanning with Omnipage 12.0 Pro for Windows so unless
it's quality is equal to what profetional ocr engines have my opinion will
be biast.

----- Original Message -----
From: Alex Snow <alex_snow@gmx.net>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 4:37 PM
Subject: Re: ocrxtr recognision software


> Just curious, has anyone tried jocr?
> http://jocr.sourceforge.net
>
>
> --
> A message from the system administrator: "I've upped my priority, now up
yours!"
> On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Terry Klarich wrote:
>
> > Ocrxtr is a unix filter program which does no more than take as input a
graphical file of many formats and runs optical character
> > recognition on it.  It's output is an ascii text.  Very simple.
> >
> > One need only to obtain a scanner of their own choosing, install and
configure sane.  Send the resulting tiff files to ocrxtr.
> >
> > I've used the Kurtzwiel reading edge and Aladen Ambassador for years.
This product far exceeds these products capibilities.
> >
> > The product costs $300 if you are blind and using it for home use.
There are several add-on's for $50 each.  These are mainly for
> > output of specialized formats.  However, the one you might be interested
in is the pdf input license.  This allows you to use ocrxtr
> > to read pdf files.  This is superior to pdf2txt because ocrxtr will
perform ocr on the graphical areas of a pdf.
> >
> > Terry
> > On Thu, 10 Apr 2003 06:17:15 -0400 (EDT)you write:
> > >What does this software do?
> > >
> > >-- charlie Crawford.
> > >On Wed, 9 Apr 2003, Christopher Moore wrote:
> > >
> > >> Hello listers,
> > >> I recently saw a rave review of the ocrxtr software for linux from
someone
> > >> on this list.  I looked at the vividata site and couldn't find any
prices.
> > >> That is generally a bad sign meaning the price is beyond affordable
for an
> > >> individual.  If anyone has any idea of prices, I'd be inteerested
either on
> > >> or off list.
> > >>
> > >> Thanks
> > >> Chris
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > >_______________________________________________
> > >Speakup mailing list
> > >Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > >http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> > >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: ocrxtr recognision software

[Igor Gueths]

I mean is it readable? Like can I scan a printed page and expect to
understand it?

May you code in the power of the source,
may the kernel, libraries, and utilities be with you,
throughout all distributions until the end of the epoch.

On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Thomas D. Ward wrote:

> Well, I felt the ocr quality was vary pore with gocr also known as jocr.
> Though I am use to scanning with Omnipage 12.0 Pro for Windows so unless
> it's quality is equal to what profetional ocr engines have my opinion will
> be biast.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Alex Snow <alex_snow@gmx.net>
> To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
> Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 4:37 PM
> Subject: Re: ocrxtr recognision software
>
>
> > Just curious, has anyone tried jocr?
> > http://jocr.sourceforge.net
> >
> >
> > --
> > A message from the system administrator: "I've upped my priority, now up
> yours!"
> > On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Terry Klarich wrote:
> >
> > > Ocrxtr is a unix filter program which does no more than take as input a
> graphical file of many formats and runs optical character
> > > recognition on it.  It's output is an ascii text.  Very simple.
> > >
> > > One need only to obtain a scanner of their own choosing, install and
> configure sane.  Send the resulting tiff files to ocrxtr.
> > >
> > > I've used the Kurtzwiel reading edge and Aladen Ambassador for years.
> This product far exceeds these products capibilities.
> > >
> > > The product costs $300 if you are blind and using it for home use.
> There are several add-on's for $50 each.  These are mainly for
> > > output of specialized formats.  However, the one you might be interested
> in is the pdf input license.  This allows you to use ocrxtr
> > > to read pdf files.  This is superior to pdf2txt because ocrxtr will
> perform ocr on the graphical areas of a pdf.
> > >
> > > Terry
> > > On Thu, 10 Apr 2003 06:17:15 -0400 (EDT)you write:
> > > >What does this software do?
> > > >
> > > >-- charlie Crawford.
> > > >On Wed, 9 Apr 2003, Christopher Moore wrote:
> > > >
> > > >> Hello listers,
> > > >> I recently saw a rave review of the ocrxtr software for linux from
> someone
> > > >> on this list.  I looked at the vividata site and couldn't find any
> prices.
> > > >> That is generally a bad sign meaning the price is beyond affordable
> for an
> > > >> individual.  If anyone has any idea of prices, I'd be inteerested
> either on
> > > >> or off list.
> > > >>
> > > >> Thanks
> > > >> Chris
> > > >>
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >_______________________________________________
> > > >Speakup mailing list
> > > >Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > > >http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> > > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Speakup mailing list
> > > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> > >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: ocrxtr recognision software

[Igor Gueths]

Spekaing of which, can anyone recommend any good ocr pkgs once I get a
scanner?

May you code in the power of the source,
may the kernel, libraries, and utilities be with you,
throughout all distributions until the end of the epoch.

On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Adam Myrow wrote:

> I wouldn't suggest jocr AKA gocr for anything except experimentation.  I
> can print out a page on my inkjet printer and scan it.  If I try to
> recognize it with gocr, the output is mostly underline characters with a
> few words.  You can sometimes get the gist of the text with some
> imagination.  I have an ancient version of Omnipage PRO under Windows
> which does far better.  Granted, there are a lot of options you can pass
> to gocr, but they only seem to make things worse.  All the different modes
> seem to make no difference.  I would suggest that somebody who understands
> how OCR works could seriously improve the software, but I am not that
> person.  I have halfway decent programming skills, but no absolutely
> nothing about how OCR works.  BTW, where does one obtain this OCRXTRA
> program?  Will it run on Slackware, or is it only functional in Redhat?
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: ocrxtr recognision software

[Thomas D. Ward]

Most of the Vivadata stuff is directly designed to run on Red Hat and Red
Hat compatible Linux distros.
If you can play around with the stuff you might get it work, but Vivadata
won't garentee non Red hat compatible distros.

----- Original Message -----
From: Adam Myrow <amyrow@midsouth.rr.com>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 6:33 PM
Subject: Re: ocrxtr recognision software


> I wouldn't suggest jocr AKA gocr for anything except experimentation.  I
> can print out a page on my inkjet printer and scan it.  If I try to
> recognize it with gocr, the output is mostly underline characters with a
> few words.  You can sometimes get the gist of the text with some
> imagination.  I have an ancient version of Omnipage PRO under Windows
> which does far better.  Granted, there are a lot of options you can pass
> to gocr, but they only seem to make things worse.  All the different modes
> seem to make no difference.  I would suggest that somebody who understands
> how OCR works could seriously improve the software, but I am not that
> person.  I have halfway decent programming skills, but no absolutely
> nothing about how OCR works.  BTW, where does one obtain this OCRXTRA
> program?  Will it run on Slackware, or is it only functional in Redhat?
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: ocrxtr recognision software

[Thomas D. Ward]

The best OCR solution I've found was OCR Shop. However, you require a scsi
scanner which OCR Shop supports, and you really do need a Red Hat compatible
distro to use OCR Shop. Which is one of the reasons I reject other distros.


----- Original Message -----
From: Igor Gueths <igueths@attbi.com>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 7:19 PM
Subject: Re: ocrxtr recognision software


> Spekaing of which, can anyone recommend any good ocr pkgs once I get a
> scanner?
>
> May you code in the power of the source,
> may the kernel, libraries, and utilities be with you,
> throughout all distributions until the end of the epoch.
>
> On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Adam Myrow wrote:
>
> > I wouldn't suggest jocr AKA gocr for anything except experimentation.  I
> > can print out a page on my inkjet printer and scan it.  If I try to
> > recognize it with gocr, the output is mostly underline characters with a
> > few words.  You can sometimes get the gist of the text with some
> > imagination.  I have an ancient version of Omnipage PRO under Windows
> > which does far better.  Granted, there are a lot of options you can pass
> > to gocr, but they only seem to make things worse.  All the different
modes
> > seem to make no difference.  I would suggest that somebody who
understands
> > how OCR works could seriously improve the software, but I am not that
> > person.  I have halfway decent programming skills, but no absolutely
> > nothing about how OCR works.  BTW, where does one obtain this OCRXTRA
> > program?  Will it run on Slackware, or is it only functional in Redhat?
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: ocrxtr recognision software

[Adam Myrow]

On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Thomas D. Ward wrote:

> The best OCR solution I've found was OCR Shop. However, you require a scsi
> scanner which OCR Shop supports, and you really do need a Red Hat compatible
> distro to use OCR Shop. Which is one of the reasons I reject other distros.

That is the reason I reject Redhat.  Their so-called standard involves a
hacked kernel source, mostly beta software, and what isn't beta is highly
modified.  On top of that, anybody notice how they release updates every
day or two?  I know if I was running a server, that isn't the type of
software I'd want on it.  Speaking of up2date, did you know that unless
you pay for the service, it is only good for a limited time?  I didn't
until a few months ago.  Despite my missgivings with Redhat, I had
installed Redhat 8 on another partition.  I was hoping to play with
Gnopernicus.  At the time, Redhat 8 was the first distribution to ship
with Gnome 2.  Well, a few months after I installed Redhat 8, I got an
email from Redhat stating that my demo account for up2date was about to
expire and that if I'd just take this little survey, I could get another
60 days before it expired.  Since I hadn't gotten around to trying
Gnopernicus out after all, and it still wasn't anywhere near production, I
deleted Redhat and haven't looked back.  Now, I don't mind that they want
to charge for the update service.  You can still download updates
manually, and can install new versions from the Internet.  what bugs me is
that they never tell you that this is a demo account nor do they tell you
how long it is good for.  On top of that, I am still getting alerts in my
email every day about the latest security fixes.  If my account isn't
valid, why are they continuing to bombard my mailbox?  Why can't they
release a stable version in the first place?  Slackware seldom needs to
update between distributions.

Oh, I forgot that this was supposed to be about OCR software.  So, what
makes OCR Shop Redhat specific?  Is it an RPM?  Is OCRXTRA Redhat
specific?

Re: ocrxtr recognision software

[Terry Klarich]

On Thu, 10 Apr 2003 20:30:05 -0400you write:
>Most of the Vivadata stuff is directly designed to run on Red Hat and Red
>Hat compatible Linux distros.
>If you can play around with the stuff you might get it work, but Vivadata
>won't garentee non Red hat compatible distros.


For ocrxtr, it is nothing more than a unix filter.  I think it would run on any release of linux.  It does not even know or care
which scanner or driver you are using.  You have to install and configure sane.  So, any supported sane scanner will work.  I have
a Cannon canoscan lide 20.  It's a USB scanner.  Works fine and runs off the usb power.  I can put it in my laptop case and take it
with me.

Scanshop is not the same product as ocrxtr.  In fact, ocrxtr contains a better algritham for ocr than scanshop.

Terry

Re: ocrxtr recognision software

[Alex Snow]

Hi.  thanks for the info.  I doubted the quality of this prog, and
development seems to be pretty slow.x

--
A message from the system administrator: "I've upped my priority, now up yours!"
On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Adam Myrow wrote:

> I wouldn't suggest jocr AKA gocr for anything except experimentation.  I
> can print out a page on my inkjet printer and scan it.  If I try to
> recognize it with gocr, the output is mostly underline characters with a
> few words.  You can sometimes get the gist of the text with some
> imagination.  I have an ancient version of Omnipage PRO under Windows
> which does far better.  Granted, there are a lot of options you can pass
> to gocr, but they only seem to make things worse.  All the different modes
> seem to make no difference.  I would suggest that somebody who understands
> how OCR works could seriously improve the software, but I am not that
> person.  I have halfway decent programming skills, but no absolutely
> nothing about how OCR works.  BTW, where does one obtain this OCRXTRA
> program?  Will it run on Slackware, or is it only functional in Redhat?
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: ocrxtr recognision software

[Alex Snow]

Are we talking linux or winblows? for linux if you want ocr chances are
you're gonna have to pay for it.

--
A message from the system administrator: "I've upped my priority, now up yours!"
On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Igor Gueths wrote:

> Spekaing of which, can anyone recommend any good ocr pkgs once I get a
> scanner?
>
> May you code in the power of the source,
> may the kernel, libraries, and utilities be with you,
> throughout all distributions until the end of the epoch.
>
> On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Adam Myrow wrote:
>
> > I wouldn't suggest jocr AKA gocr for anything except experimentation.  I
> > can print out a page on my inkjet printer and scan it.  If I try to
> > recognize it with gocr, the output is mostly underline characters with a
> > few words.  You can sometimes get the gist of the text with some
> > imagination.  I have an ancient version of Omnipage PRO under Windows
> > which does far better.  Granted, there are a lot of options you can pass
> > to gocr, but they only seem to make things worse.  All the different modes
> > seem to make no difference.  I would suggest that somebody who understands
> > how OCR works could seriously improve the software, but I am not that
> > person.  I have halfway decent programming skills, but no absolutely
> > nothing about how OCR works.  BTW, where does one obtain this OCRXTRA
> > program?  Will it run on Slackware, or is it only functional in Redhat?
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
>
>
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Re: ocrxtr recognision software

[Thomas D. Ward]

Hi, I do believe I get update notifications, but not on a daily basis. As
for uptodate I believe it once was free, but they now started charging for
it. If I want an update I manually get the packages and do a rpm freshen
install on them.
There is also a way to get monthly updates on cd sent to you with all the
updates applied. I would think being notified of updates, and getting the
latest security fixes would be a good thing. Slackware doesn't update as
regularly,
and they have long periods before stable versions. This is both good, and
has a bad side. Good because you are probably going to get the most stable
version they can provide, but bad because they are slow to release updated
patches.
Your comment about Red Hat releasing unstable software is misleading. I
believe they do release stable versions, but they discover security, and
other issues throughout the course of the stable version cycle. Every distro
discovers this or that after the release.
Take sendmail for example. It is not a product of Red Hat, but it has a
stream of security adviseries about security issues. Well, do you think the
security issues in sendmail effects only Red Hat or do you think it would
effect all distros including the Grand and invincible slackware?
Oh, and because of various problems in sendmail I use postfix instead. Which
by the way comes with Red Hat and not Slackware. Postfix is a hell of alot
easier to configure, hell of allot more secure than sendmail, and over all
hell of allot better product than sendmail.
As for OCR Shop it has library dependancies,and I was told by Vivadata that
they didn't recommend using other distros.
You want to try and get it working on Slackware, Debian, etc go ahead and
ttry the demo. At least you will know if it can be used with your distro.


 ----- Original Message -----
From: Adam Myrow <amyrow@midsouth.rr.com>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 9:06 PM
Subject: Re: ocrxtr recognision software


> On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Thomas D. Ward wrote:
>
> > The best OCR solution I've found was OCR Shop. However, you require a
scsi
> > scanner which OCR Shop supports, and you really do need a Red Hat
compatible
> > distro to use OCR Shop. Which is one of the reasons I reject other
distros.
>
> That is the reason I reject Redhat.  Their so-called standard involves a
> hacked kernel source, mostly beta software, and what isn't beta is highly
> modified.  On top of that, anybody notice how they release updates every
> day or two?  I know if I was running a server, that isn't the type of
> software I'd want on it.  Speaking of up2date, did you know that unless
> you pay for the service, it is only good for a limited time?  I didn't
> until a few months ago.  Despite my missgivings with Redhat, I had
> installed Redhat 8 on another partition.  I was hoping to play with
> Gnopernicus.  At the time, Redhat 8 was the first distribution to ship
> with Gnome 2.  Well, a few months after I installed Redhat 8, I got an
> email from Redhat stating that my demo account for up2date was about to
> expire and that if I'd just take this little survey, I could get another
> 60 days before it expired.  Since I hadn't gotten around to trying
> Gnopernicus out after all, and it still wasn't anywhere near production, I
> deleted Redhat and haven't looked back.  Now, I don't mind that they want
> to charge for the update service.  You can still download updates
> manually, and can install new versions from the Internet.  what bugs me is
> that they never tell you that this is a demo account nor do they tell you
> how long it is good for.  On top of that, I am still getting alerts in my
> email every day about the latest security fixes.  If my account isn't
> valid, why are they continuing to bombard my mailbox?  Why can't they
> release a stable version in the first place?  Slackware seldom needs to
> update between distributions.
>
> Oh, I forgot that this was supposed to be about OCR software.  So, what
> makes OCR Shop Redhat specific?  Is it an RPM?  Is OCRXTRA Redhat
> specific?
>
>
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Re: ocrxtr recognision software

[Thomas D. Ward]

Hi, I am glad OCRXTR will work coss Linux platforms. In attempting to get
OCR Shopworking with Slack 9 it wasn't working for me, and I've since nuked
Slack 9, because it is becoming clear it doesn't fill my needs.

----- Original Message -----
From: Terry Klarich <terry@ki5zw.ampr.org>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 9:28 PM
Subject: Re: ocrxtr recognision software


> On Thu, 10 Apr 2003 20:30:05 -0400you write:
> >Most of the Vivadata stuff is directly designed to run on Red Hat and Red
> >Hat compatible Linux distros.
> >If you can play around with the stuff you might get it work, but Vivadata
> >won't garentee non Red hat compatible distros.
>
>
> For ocrxtr, it is nothing more than a unix filter.  I think it would run
on any release of linux.  It does not even know or care
> which scanner or driver you are using.  You have to install and configure
sane.  So, any supported sane scanner will work.  I have
> a Cannon canoscan lide 20.  It's a USB scanner.  Works fine and runs off
the usb power.  I can put it in my laptop case and take it
> with me.
>
> Scanshop is not the same product as ocrxtr.  In fact, ocrxtr contains a
better algritham for ocr than scanshop.
>
> Terry
>
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Slackware VS. Redhat (was Re: ocrxtr recognision software)

[Adam Myrow]

On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Thomas D. Ward wrote:

> Your comment about Red Hat releasing unstable software is misleading. I
> believe they do release stable versions, but they discover security, and
> other issues throughout the course of the stable version cycle. Every distro
> discovers this or that after the release.

Well, here is an example of what I am talking about.  I just downloaded
the Grub RPM and used rpm2tgz to convert and extract it before I made this
statement so I could be sure of its accuracy.  Redhat suggests that you
use Grub as your boot loader.  The release notes for the last few versions
state that they plan to drop Lilo eventually.  Well, my beef with this is
that GNU Grub isn't ready for anything but testing.  To quote the official
home page: "for now, GNU GRUB is not released publicly yet, but you can
still get the test releases from alpha.gnu.org:/gnu/grub, and the latest
version from CVS."  I don't feel comfortable using a boot loader that is
considered by its developers to be in Alpha stage.  Yes, Grub has distinct
advantages over Lilo, but for me, it's not worth the potential risk.
Slackware has backed down a version of Lilo because the newest one caused
trouble with RAID drives.  They provide the newer version in the Extra
directory so that people who want features from it can try it out.

Another example is the ntp package.  Ntp stands for network time protocol
and it lets one set the computer's clock over the network.  The program
will check the time from the network periodically and will speed up or
slow down the system clock to keep it as accurate as possible.  Slackware
ships with the unmodified stable release of NTP.  Redhat doesn't exactly
ship with a beta, but they have modified their version so that it can run
as user NTP instead of root.  This has some security benefits, I suppose,
but it uses a command-line option that doesn't exist in the normal
version.  What if the user decides to upgrade to a new version later, or
fall back to an earlier version because of a bug?  They will have to
modify their startup scripts to not use this non-standard extension.  If I
were Redhat, I'd be trying to get the extension patched into the official
distribution if it's a good enough idea.

> Take sendmail for example. It is not a product of Red Hat, but it has a
> stream of security adviseries about security issues. Well, do you think the
> security issues in sendmail effects only Red Hat or do you think it would
> effect all distros including the Grand and invincible slackware?


Yes, and in the case where a major hole is discovered in Sendmail,
Slackware will provide a patch on their FTP site.

The versions of Redhat I used didn't appear to have an alternative to
Sendmail, but it's possible I missed it given that it is very hard to
control what packages get installed on a Redhat system.  Unless you go
through the steps in exactly the right order to select packages
individually, or do a full install of every single package, you will wind
up missing a lot of good packages like Lynx and Pine.

Don't get me wrong, Slackware isn't perfect.  I actually learned some
things from Redhat.  For example, I learned how to configure Sendmail to
not permit any connections from any computer other than the local host by
looking at how Redhat sets up Sendmail by default.  I also think Redhats
ability to set what services start and stop at boot time is a great idea.
I didn't care for its hardware detection because it didn't pick up
everything and causes annoying delays at boot time.  I also detest how a
simple thing like configuring the system to run hdparm with certain
parameters has to be done in its own script.

I guess what this whole thing boils down to is personal preference, and we
are all getting worked up over it.  That includes me.  It's just that when
I hear something about how a potentially useful commercial product is
created in such a way as to only work with a particularly popular version
of Linux, it puts my hair on end.  Especially since the web site doesn't
explicitly state that it requires Redhat.  It just says Linux.  I've gone
ahead and downloaded the demo of OCR Shop and will see what exactly I can
get it to do.  Anybody know if there is a demo of OCRXTRA?  I couldn't
find one, and since it costs more, I'd certainly like to try it before
investing in it.

Re: ocrxtr recognision software

[ccrawford]

Cool.  Sonds very good and it's like many other things a mattter of 
money eh? 

-- charlie Crawford.
On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Terry Klarich wrote:

> Ocrxtr is a unix filter program which does no more than take as input a graphical file of many formats and runs optical character
> recognition on it.  It's output is an ascii text.  Very simple.
> 
> One need only to obtain a scanner of their own choosing, install and configure sane.  Send the resulting tiff files to ocrxtr.
> 
> I've used the Kurtzwiel reading edge and Aladen Ambassador for years.  This product far exceeds these products capibilities.
> 
> The product costs $300 if you are blind and using it for home use.  There are several add-on's for $50 each.  These are mainly for
> output of specialized formats.  However, the one you might be interested in is the pdf input license.  This allows you to use ocrxtr
> to read pdf files.  This is superior to pdf2txt because ocrxtr will perform ocr on the graphical areas of a pdf.
> 
> Terry
> On Thu, 10 Apr 2003 06:17:15 -0400 (EDT)you write:
> >What does this software do?  
> >
> >-- charlie Crawford. 
> >On Wed, 9 Apr 2003, Christopher Moore wrote:
> >
> >> Hello listers,
> >> I recently saw a rave review of the ocrxtr software for linux from someone
> >> on this list.  I looked at the vividata site and couldn't find any prices.
> >> That is generally a bad sign meaning the price is beyond affordable for an
> >> individual.  If anyone has any idea of prices, I'd be inteerested either on
> >> or off list.  
> >> 
> >> Thanks
> >> Chris
> >> 
> >
> >
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