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matthewb18341747
Participant
November 18, 2024
Question

OCR - Can't figure out. Help please.

  • November 18, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 1884 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 19, 2024
Thank you for your help.

I am familiar with and use speech to text, but I just wanted to try this OCR as an option.

What I do not understand is that Adobe says it is something that can be done. At this point, I am not concerned with how well it works. I just want to know how to do it.

Why does Adobe say it is a thing if it isn’t?

I was about to say that the "Best I can guess is that sometimes Adobe's marketing is a bit ahead of the engineers." but I looked it up (thanks google) and found this:

 

Tips for scanning handwriting to text smoothly.

You can easily convert handwriting to text via OCR technology. By using a free scanner app like Adobe Scan, a smartphone, or an online OCR option, you can scan the handwriting with your smartphone. From there, the technology will recognize the text and translate it into text on a document.

Although OCR can recognize handwriting, the writing has to be reasonably neat in the first place. OCR relies on uniformity to recognize text, and — like people — it can have trouble reading messy handwriting. Here are some tips to make OCR scans more successful:

  • Use lined paper to keep your handwritten lines straight.
  • Write in capital letters to help OCR recognize different symbols.
  • Write slowly to keep your handwriting as uniform as possible.
  • Try not to smudge or crumble the paper as you write.

In a nutshell, the closer your handwriting is to a digital font, the better OCR can recognize it. But you may be able to convert even smudged or messy writing, so it’s always worth a try.

 

So, while they are talking about "handwriting," they sidestep into "make your text look like a digital font."

 

So, I think it's safe to say that your best bet is to get your printing to look like Helvetica or Times New Roman.

 

Meanwhile, I'd go with the Speech to Text approach,

 

Good luck!

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