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M
matthewb18341747
Participant
November 18, 2024
Question

OCR - Can't figure out. Help please.

  • November 18, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 1880 views

I scanned a sheet with handwritten notes with Adobe Scan. I opened it into Acrobat, hoping to convert the handwritten words into text (like I typed it). All of the online helps say it can be done, but I see no options as to actually do it. Can someone help please?

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1 reply

gary_sc
Community Expert
gary_scCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 18, 2024

Can you select the text in Adobe Scan?

 

Not seeing the script, I have to say that any expectations that it would be viable are small. Very small. OCR, in general, has many mistakes and failures, and that's with actual text, not script. I have enough problems understanding my handwriting, so to think that any OCR would get it any better is hopeless! :>)

 

I've been using OCR for about 25 years, and every once in a while, the original content is so poor that rewriting is the best course of action. Even if the OCRing of script was 50% accurate, it would take you significantly more time to fix it than to retype it. 

 

I am not trying to dampen your enthusiasm; I am just shining a bit of light on what to expect if you can get anything to help.

M
matthewb18341747Author
Participant
November 18, 2024
Thank you for your feedback.

That is helpful to know for the future, but my issue is that I don't know
how to do it at all. Can you or another explain how to actually convert the
handwritten PDF into typed-text?
gary_sc
Community Expert
gary_scCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 18, 2024

To be honest, I do not know of any commercial OCR that can handle script. Some software can translate hand-printed text into text, but not script. I've seen ads for these that accompany large whiteboards for company meetings so that everything that is written on the boards is captured for future reference. But that's not what you're looking for.

 

If you have a long document you wish to extract the text from, one approach is using speech-to-text software. This might work if you read the text, the software translates your speech into written text, and then you'd follow up by setting the preferred paragraph structure, fixing the homonyms, etc. 

 

Unless you already own one, I suggest you Google " speech-to-text software" and look for programs compatible with your OS, hardware, etc.

 

Good luck. 

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