It was not by choice that K1000 no longer makes the Scansoft OCR engine
available. The company that makes it would no longer provide the license.
This was according to Stephen Baum not long before he retired.
That is why I am holding onto my older version of K1000 for as long as I
possibly can. I generally prefer the FineReader engine, but there are times
when the Scansoft engine definitely gives better results. I do not want to
give up the flexibility I have now.
Evan
-----Original Message-----
From: Redacted sender "t.gorman" for DMARC
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2020 1:44 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Question about advertising in books
Hi Chelsea,
While it's true that a flatbed scanner is slower than the Pearl because of
the need for the scanner head to move across the page, some of this speed
has to do with the computer being used and the speed of the processor in it.
When I bought a new computer with a fast i7 ninth generation processor and a
Plustek Opticbook 4800 I noticed an amazing improvement in speed.
Recognition is complete even before the scanner head has finished its
return. Also with a flatbed scanner you have a lot of control over how the
book is placed in position to get the best image. I'm willing to bet that
the Pearl's main advantage is speed but that a little bit of accuracy is
sacrificed because of the positioning of the book.
Plustek scanners, whether the 4800 or others, allow you to position the book
at the front of the scanner rather than the sides which is a tremendous
advantage.
One more thought. In my version of Kurzweil 1000, there are two OCR engines
and I sometimes have to switch from one to the other in certain books and
even within a book to increase accuracy. Not everyone has both these OCR
engines though because most recently Kurzweil no longer makes Scansoft
available. If you still have it (it's grandfathered or grandmothered), make
sure you have tried both engines. I've found that older books from the 1970s
and 1980s seem not to scan as accurately as newer books. I don't think age
is the issue; there may have been changes in fonts used. In a very few
instances, I've given up on a book because after a certain amount of trouble
it's just not worth the investment in time and aggravation.
My new computer and scanner set me back about $1700 which is quite an
investment for some people. It may require a go fund me page to get that
accomplished but it just might be worth it. I kept my old monitor and even
my old keyboard because I liked them.
With my new computer and scanner, and set at 300 dots per inch, in 12
seconds, I can scan a page and have the next page in position. This is
pretty amazing but it's no exaggeration.
If you do get a Pearl, please let us know how it works. Some state agencies
have a loan program which would allow you to test a product before buying
it. The manufacturer probably likely only has a 30-day approval period but
you could also use that if you want to try it out.
-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Chelsea Dye
Sent: Thursday, June 4, 2020 12:06 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Question about advertising in books
Is that a particular scanner brand? I've got an HP CanoScan. I don't know if
it's book quality or the scanner, but I've run into a lot of errors with it
that I think could be prevented.
On 6/4/20, Deborah Murray <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Chelsea,To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
The Bookshare policy has always been to leave the ads and blurbs from
other books—as long as it scans well enough to be readable.
In my personal opinion, K1000 has always been a superior OCR program
to OpenBook, no matter what your scanning source is.
I’ve never used a camera to scana book, much preferring my OpticBook
scanner to anything else I’ve ever used.
Deborah
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chelsea Dye
Sent: Thursday, June 4, 2020 7:50 AM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Question about advertising in books
Hello,
In the process of scanning some of my books, I noticed that there is
often company advertising, and mention of other books at the end of a lot of them.
Are we supposed to keep that in our files? Also, I am considering
switching scanning programs to open book with the pearl camera. Has
anyone on this list used it, and what do you think? Based on the demo
I heard, it sounds much faster than K 1000
Chelsea
Please go to my website for your braille transcription needs!
www.read-theworld.net
Sent from my iPhone
