Re: How good is OCR?

["John Posada" <writer -at- tdandw -dot- com>]

Marc...

First, good luck on the product.

Second...if it is true cut and paste, why would it be
limited to Word. Anything that you can send to clipboard can
be transferred. The question becomes what it looks like when
it gets there, but that's another issue. There's also been
discussion on the list lately about applications that
convert PDFs to Word

RE OCR...It's pretty good. Obviously, depends on the quality
of the original, the contrast and resolution it is scanned
(and higher resolution doesn't always equate to greater
accuracy), and what your standards are for conversion
fidelity.

There is also the ability for a PDF to be OCR'd using to a
text file during document scanning using Acrobat Capture,
and I'm sure others.

In any event, if the customer wants to do it, they will do
it.

If I was to attempt to counter this ability in a
competitor's product, I'd question the legality from a
copyright perspective. Also, I assume there will be a
subscription service...what happens to the altered product
on the next update?

John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
writer[at]tdandw.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Marc A. Santacroce" <epubs -at- astound -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2003 8:52 AM
Subject: How good is OCR?


>
> It's taken me close to a year to develop a series of
manuals that are
> mandated by new FAA regulations affecting aircraft repair
stations.  I
> am distributing the manuals an CD-ROM, with interactive
Acrobat
> bookmarks. I'm off to a convention this weekend to peddle
my wares.
>
> A competitor is offering another product that consists of
an MS Word
> outline into which customers can cut-and-past portions of
their
> existing manuals. I can see this working for those who
have an MS word
> version of their manuals, but many of the customer base
just have a
> hardcopy version. Has OCR software improved such that this
is a viable
> option? I can't see this working for a pdf import.
>
> What does the group think?


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