OCR reomendations pleae.

[raybarrow]

Hi Folks,

I get of bits of paperwork, .PDFs etc that I scan and OCR into a .doc to modify in some way. I don't always know where the original came from so may only have paper copy. I currently use a Canon printer/scanner and my Omnipage SE4 (It came bunded with my original scanner many years ago). It works ok to a point, but as Omnipage is currently on version 18, I could probably do better or could I?

I'm looking for something offline/online that can read a .PDF file and convert it to .DOC file with minimal effort and doesn't involve the scanner (not exaclty portable). I presume anything not as a .PDF would have to be scanned first and go the long way round, but something 'quicky and dirty', two clicks and done would be useful.

I'm looking for free. I looked online and there are lots and lots of them. Any experiences and/or suggestions?

Ray.

[AF62]

Depending on how much text there is you can do it directly with Windows 10GB using screenshots and Bing - https://mspoweruser.com/tip-ocr-text-fr ... indows-10/

If you want to do it from your phone, if Android you can use Google Keep or Microsoft Lens, and if Apple (and a recent iPhone) then you can select text directly from a photo.

[Infrasonic]

Google Lens will do OCR as well.

[raybarrow]

Hi Folks,

Sounds like either will do. I'll have a play.

Thanks,
Ray.

[raybarrow]

Hi FOlks, (I know that's a capital 'O' but it happens everytime - typing the 'O' to quickly after the capital 'F' so I'm just going to go with it.)
What do they say about only using 20% of the software's capability?
My main PDF reader is Foxit Reader, but I also have Ashampoo PDF Pro 2 (It's useful for adding/deleting/reorganising pages). Hidden in there is a OCR reader, must be in that 80% I don't use. Tried on a sheet of music (Chatanooga Choo Choo if you are interested) and whilst the musical notation was garbage the lyrics were spot on.

The other thing I found was that Foxit reader free will read a PDF out loud, something else I didn't know. Foxit Reader PDF Editor will do OCR but is not cheap as I got the Ashampoo PDF Pro 2 on a very good offer. I think my software awareness/usage went up to possibly 20.1%.

Cheers,
Ray.

[stevensfo]

Hi FOlks, (I know that's a capital 'O' but it happens everytime - typing the 'O' to quickly after the capital 'F' so I'm just going to go with it.)
What do they say about only using 20% of the software's capability?
My main PDF reader is Foxit Reader, but I also have Ashampoo PDF Pro 2 (It's useful for adding/deleting/reorganising pages). Hidden in there is a OCR reader, must be in that 80% I don't use. Tried on a sheet of music (Chatanooga Choo Choo if you are interested) and whilst the musical notation was garbage the lyrics were spot on.

The other thing I found was that Foxit reader free will read a PDF out loud, something else I didn't know. Foxit Reader PDF Editor will do OCR but is not cheap as I got the Ashampoo PDF Pro 2 on a very good offer. I think my software awareness/usage went up to possibly 20.1%.

Cheers,
Ray.

Ray, just to go off at a slight tangent, over 10 years ago, I had the Finale Printmusic software with a music notation OCR included. It certainly wasn't perfect and the document had to be very clear, but it did save a lot of time.

Any idea if notation OCRs have improved since then?

Steve

[raybarrow]

I had the Finale Printmusic software with a music notation OCR included

Hi Steve,

Haven't heard of Finale Printmusic. If you are still into that sort of thing our group are experimenting with Musecore.

https://musescore.org/en/3.0

Our Musical Director/Pianist is retiring to the Welsh Borders, our last perfomance together tomorrow, Sunday. Musecore is a musical notation sotware inputted via a keyboard, midi etc. That is a bit beyond us and can very time consuming if you aren't practised at it. If you are good at it then it's just like word processing for music. It can then produce a sound file to play the music.
However the latest version will accept a PDF of the sheet music and convert into an editable file. Altering a few notes here and there that didn't quite make the conversion or we want to alter anyway is not that difificult for us. Again that can then produce a sound file which we can then play through our 'karaoke' type system. It's early days but the results, so far, are promising.

Cheers,
Ray.

[stevensfo]

I had the Finale Printmusic software with a music notation OCR included

Hi Steve,

Haven't heard of Finale Printmusic. If you are still into that sort of thing our group are experimenting with Musecore.

https://musescore.org/en/3.0

Our Musical Director/Pianist is retiring to the Welsh Borders, our last perfomance together tomorrow, Sunday. Musecore is a musical notation sotware inputted via a keyboard, midi etc. That is a bit beyond us and can very time consuming if you aren't practised at it. If you are good at it then it's just like word processing for music. It can then produce a sound file to play the music.
However the latest version will accept a PDF of the sheet music and convert into an editable file. Altering a few notes here and there that didn't quite make the conversion or we want to alter anyway is not that difificult for us. Again that can then produce a sound file which we can then play through our 'karaoke' type system. It's early days but the results, so far, are promising.

Cheers,
Ray.

Thanks Ray. Yes, I know of Musescore, though haven't used it yet. That may change in a year or so when I plan to take early retirement and resume some old hobbies, including music. Musescore is a free open-source program. The big players are Finale and Sibelius, the latter being ridiculously overpriced for anyone except professionals with large budgets. Not even sure if it still exists. The problem with notation programs is the rather steep learning curve and tendency to forget everything if you don't use it regularly.
Great news about the latest version. Thanks! It's the scanning and OCR that interest me. Many years ago I played in a wind band and also had colleagues who were interested in meeting up just for fun. Impossible to find duets for clarinet and french horn or trios for clarinet,french horn and cornet, so I started to edit and transform all sorts of duets and trios into versions for those instruments. All I remember was it seemed a good idea at the time, but it was an enormous amount of work! Keys had to be changed and instrument range accounted for etc.

A program that can convert a PDF of the sheet music into an editable file is a lifesaver!

Steve

PS Not sure my wife is looking forward to my retirement. She always called my clarinets 'Those bloody flutes'!

[Sorcery]

Don't visit this board very much, so missed this thread.
As it happens, my company makes one and I am the main author. Costs £60.00 but you can just download and get the first 50 pages for free. The £60 also gets you an API if you have programming skills.
https://transym.com/