OCR PDF files and convert them to text, Word, Excel, XML and other formats. Create editable Word documents from scanned PDF files, or OCR PDF files for data entry automation.

Total Cost of Ownership of an OCR Software

What is TCO (total cost of ownership)?

Total Cost of Ownership

The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is a financial estimate intended to help buyers and owners determine the direct and indirect costs of a product or service. It is a management accounting concept that can be used in full cost accounting. (Wikipedia).

TCO is a popular concept when it comes to comparing Software. It allows you to estimate the cost of using the OCR software and plan your automation strategy according to your possible workload and budget over time.

There are several aspects that are too circumstantial to be able to include in general cost estimates, but there are some that we know for a fact, and we can combine them in a total cost of ownership for each OCR scenario and compare them to the possible solutions on the market.

Front-End Cost

The first and most obvious element is front-end cost. This is the price that will be presented with the product, and the marketing team will be pointing towards special offers and discounts to cut it down. It is an important factor, but it is far from everything you would need to take into account. And yet, even here, there are different options. Some of the OCR solutions will offer you the “pay and forget” option of making one payment right here, right now. However, lately, the annual cost or subscription model has become more and more popular, allowing customers to spread costs over time and OCR creators to organize a steady flow of income.

Cost of Support and Maintenance

The second element of the total cost of ownership would be the cost of support and maintenance. Theoretically, it is possible to avoid […]

OCR Guide

What is OCR?

OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition and is the technology that allows software to interpret text on scanned images. When this technology is applied to automating business data entry processes it’s referred to as OCR Data Capture.

Many are familiar with popular desktop OCR applications designed to convert scanned images to editable documents. When this process is applied to specific areas of the document containing data fields it’s called zone OCR. But OCR data capture software is more than just simple zone OCR. Modern applications use some or all of these technologies:

80%

Using the OCR software enables enterprises to reduce the document processing time by as much as 80%

Benefits of using OCR

If not for the trees then do it for the savings on paper, toner, copiers and their services contracts, etc.

How much time is wasted searching for paper files? Digital documents can searched and viewed instantly from anywhere.

Paper is much harder to backup and restore than digital data.

Office square footage and off-site records storage adds to the cost of keeping paper documents.

Government mandates for records retention […]

What Document Management Systems are supported by PowerPDF Advanced 2.1?

Q: What Document Management Systems are supported by PowerPDF Advanced 2.1?

A: Document Management System support in the Advanced Edition

  • Microsoft® SharePoint Server 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2013 Windows SharePoint Services (WSS)  3.0 and Microsoft Office 365
  • eDOCS DM (former Hummingbird Enterprise™ 5.3.1 and 10

Power PDF supports eDOCS systems  if a DM Extensions API is installed and configured on the client machine. The product is also integrated into Windows Explorer DM Extension.

  • Interwoven® WorkSite 8.3, 8.5 and 9.3

Power PDF supports Interwoven WorkSite systems if DeskSite 8.2 or FileSite 8.2  for WorkSite 8.3 or FileSite 8.5 for WorkSite 8.5 or DeskSite 9.3 or FileSite 9.3 for Work 9.2 is installed and configured on the client machine. The product is also integrated into DeskSite and FileSite clients. The Nuance implementation warns if a requested document is checked out to another user.

  • Livelink® ECM – Enterprise Server 9.7.0 and 10 from OpenText Corp.

Power PDF supports LiveLink ECM if a LiveLink Explorer Professional Windows Client is installed and configured on the client machine.

  • OpenText Enterprise Connect

Supports OpenText Content Server through Enterprise Connect if the  Enterprise Connect framework 10.5 or higher is installed and configured on the machine

  • NetDocuments SaaS cloud-based storage.

Save files to this web-based storage facility, providing Software as a Service (SaaS).

  • Worldox® GX3 and GX4
  • EMC2® Documentum 7.1,  6.7

Power PDF supports EMC2 Documentum if a DFC 6.5 client is installed and configured on the client machine.

  • Xerox DocuShare 6 and 6.5
  • OnBase 13+

To work with Hyland’s OnBase from Power PDF the Nuance module must be licensed on the OnBase server.

DMS PowerPDF Document Management Systems

How to have more control over the OCR process in PowerPDF

Q: How to have more control over the OCR process in PowerPDF?  For example, to edit the text in the OCR layer to correct mistakes.

A: As designed, Nuance PowerPDF does not offer this functionality .

Nuance Power PDF program offers a powerful built-in OCR engine but it only offers limited control over the OCR process.  To accomplish what the client is requesting you would specialized Optical Character Recognition (OCR) program such as Nuance® OmniPage®.

There are many advantages in using this Nuance® OmniPage® Optical Character Recognition (OCR) program if you want more control over the OCR process.

  • Choose from four formatting levels instead of two (see below)
  • Win full control over the OCR process, including:
    • The ability to manually zone pages
    • Access to multi-lingual spell checking and proofing
    • Dynamic verifier image display to speed up editing
    • Voice readback facility
    • And much more.
  • Scan new pages into the converted document
  • Add new pages from fax, image files or digital cameras
  • Save to other formats, including OmniPage’s internal format for document sharing with other OmniPage users.

The four formatting levels offered for saving in OmniPage are:

The pages retain the layout of the originals. Graphics and framed elements are placed in text boxes. Whenever possible, other text is transferred without using text boxes. Power PDF offers this under the name Flowing Column.

The pages retain the layout of the originals, but all elements are placed in text boxes, including text in columns. Power PDF offers this formatting.

Text is decolumnized, but text attributes, graphics and tables are retained.

  1. Flowing Page
  2. True Page
  3. Formatted Text
  4. Plain Text

Text is decolumnized and rendered as plain text. Graphics and tables are retained, but not in their original locations. This option is convenient for users who want to reformat the content.

 

Configuring Nuance PDF output settings to include more than 500 pages per PDF

By default when using the Nuance Full-Text step each PDF that is generated can only contain 500 pages. The following steps can be used to increase the maximum number of pages that each PDF can hold beyond 500 pages.

By default the Nuance full-text step is designed to create 500 page PDF’s. Use the following steps to increase the default number:

This change should be made on all Capture Automation servers that will be generating PDF’s.

  1. Make a copy of the ClientSettings.xml file located at C:\Program Data\Digitech Systems
  2. From the desktop, click Start > Run > type services.msc and press <Enter>
  3. Highlight and right-click the PaperVision ProcessInitiator1 service and choose Stop
  4. Edit the ClientSettings.xml file using Notepad
  5. Add the following line of text:<OCRFullTextMaxPagePerDoc>500</OCRFullTextMaxPagePerDoc>
  6. Change the value from “500” to the number of pages that will be used to create each PDF (e.g. 750)
  7. Save and close the ClientSettings.xml file
  8. From the desktop, click Start > Run > type services.msc and press <Enter>
  9. Highlight and right-click the PaperVision ProcessInitiator1 service and choose Start

PDF Processing with FineReader and FineReader Server

How to create a PDF from Microsoft® Word, Excel, or PowerPoint

 

How to convert emails to PDF

 

How to Split a PDF

Create new PDF documents or separate PDF documents combined in one easily with FineReader PDF 15.

Learn how to split PDFs and extract pages easily.

 

 

How to create and edit interactive PDF forms

Watch this video and see how to edit and create interactive PDF forms quickly and easily.

Form Editor tool in FineReader PDF 15 allows creating and editing fillable PDF forms with text and date fields, dropdown lists, list boxes, checkmarks, radio buttons, signature fileds and action buttons. Collect information and create effective document templates with ease!

 

How to extract text from scanned PDFs

 

 

How to extract tables

 

 

How can I verify if the digital signature is valid?

If you open a document with a valid digital signature in FineReader, you will see a green notification Valid on the left panel of ABBYY FineReader PDF 15:
 mceclip0.png

Recognizing a document with existing text layer in FineReader PDF 15

  1. Open FineReader PDF 15;
  2. Go to Tools > Options > OCR;
  3. In the PDF recognition mode select Use OCR option:
  4.  Click OK;
  5.  Recognize your document again.

 

 

How to convert a document into an accessible PDF/UA

Make your mixed documents—PDF, scanned, photographed, or papers— digital and accessible.

In this […]

Reading Barcodes with Digitech PaperFlow and PaperVision Capture

Does processing barcodes “on-the-fly” make any difference in speed or recognition?

On-the-fly processing is actually a preferable way of reading barcodes since it does not noticeably decrease scan speed. The recognition will be the same whether the barcode is processed on the fly or as a post-process.

 

Foxit Cvision PDF Compressor

Foxit PDF Compressor is an OCR server equipped with enhanced compression that can dramatically reduce the size of PDF files. This can lead to big cost savings in cloud storage and bandwidth fees, and improved efficiency for knowledge workers who save time on every file they open.

5 Tips for Selecting a Document Compression Solution

Pricing starts at $375 for 12,000 pages per year. One-time and CPU-based licensing is also available. Contact us for pricing and bundling options for any page volume.

ABBYY FineReader Engine on-premise OCR SDK

The software development kit ABBYY FineReader Engine allows software developers to create applications that extract textual information from paper documents, images or displays. This AI-powered OCR SDK provides your application with excellent text recognition, PDF conversion, and data capture functionalities, enabling it to convert scans into searchable PDF, Word or Excel documents, and access data on photos or screenshots.

Licensing is based on number of developers for the base SDK, then annual page counts for the perpetual license. Each of the optional components increases the per-page cost slightly.

ABBYY Cloud OCR SDK

ABBYY® Cloud OCR SDK is a web-based document processing service that will enhance your enterprise software systems, SaaS platforms, or your mobile apps with the ability to convert documents and utilize textual information from scans, PDFs, document images, smartphone photos, or screenshots.

Combining ABBYY’s latest AI-based technologies for information extraction with the highly scalable processing power of the Microsoft® Azure® computing infrastructure, this secure and reliable ABBYY cloud service can be easily integrated into your application via a REST API—empowering it to precisely convert virtually any number of pages within the shortest amount of time.

How to scan documents to searchable PDF files

Adobe Acrobat OCR to Searchable PDFIf you don’t already have a scanner, and scanning to searchable PDF files is the only thing you need to do, you will find many document scanners that can perform this function. Most desktop and high-speed document scanners come with software that has this basic capability. However these often have limited functionality and you may prefer a more robust application.

To create searchable PDFs with any scanner, use Desktop OCR software applications like FineReader, ReadIRIS, or OmniPage. These programs can also be used to convert images to MS Word, Excel, and other editable formats.

There are also more affordable PDF converters that have fewer OCR features and limit output to PDF files.

You can find a complete guide to OCR software here.

For high-volume applications, use OCR servers to give everyone on your network the ability to create searchable PDFs on a dedicated server.

Enterprise site licensing, concurrent user licensing and cloud-based solutions are also available. Please contact us for more information or a quote for desktop OCR and PDF converter site licensing options.

You may use SimpleIndex to automatically extract data from searchable PDFs for indexing, automatic file naming, and integration with custom database or document management applications. This is a very fast and accurate way to set keyword metadata for searching. It has both Tesseract and FineReader OCR options for creating searchable PDFs, and is available in desktop or server versions.

Tungsten Kofax OmniPage Server On-Premise

Tungsten Kofax OmniPage Server turns OmniPage into a true server-based OCR solution that is scalable to any volume by load-balancing across multiple servers. OmniPage Server is perfect for high-volume conversion projects or for distributing OCR throughout the enterprise.

SimpleIndex Pro Server 1M PPY

SimpleIndex Pro Server 1 million pages per year – ABBYY FineReader OCR Server, Accusoft Barcode Engine 1D/2D Client, DTK Barcode Engine 1D/2D Server & ISIS Scanning

Document capture solution with a one-click interface that automates your scanning and document filing by creating easy-to-find electronic content, saving you time and money.  It’s highly customizable to meet even the most detailed needs, with top quality technicians to support your requirements.

SimpleIndex OCR Workstation

Document capture solution with a one-click interface that automates your scanning and document filing by creating easy-to-find electronic content, saving you time and money.  It’s highly customizable to meet even the most detailed needs, with top quality technicians to support your requirements.

SimpleIndex OCR Workstation version
Includes:

basic text and barcode recognition,
ABBYY FineReader OCR Client,
TWAIN and ISIS scanning
1 Year Support & Upgrades

OCR Consulting Services

OCR Experts for Any Project

Our unique team of OCR experts are equipped to help out with OCR projects of any size or complexity. We have support specialists that can remotely configure desktop solutions in a matter of minutes and expert systems integrators with years of programming, database design, and robotic process automation experience.

Desktop OCR

Batch Document Scanning and OCRUse our online store to order desktop OCR applications and our staff will be happy to answer your setup questions via email or web chat.

Remote configuration and training services using GotoMeeting are available for a low hourly rate.

Batch Scanning & OCR Servers

Data Capture Forms OCRAutomate document scanning and digital document archival processes using zone OCR, barcode recognition, database integration and other technologies.

Small business systems and single document workflows can be setup remotely via GotoMeeting, usually in just a few hours. Chat now if we’re online or leave a message to schedule a consultation.

Data Capture and Forms Processing

Advanced data extraction solutions that can turn the most complex documents into structured data ready for use in business applications. Each member of our data capture consulting team has over 10 years experience designing and implementing advanced OCR solutions.

We are the most experienced system integrator in the US for our flagship data capture platform, ABBYY FlexiCapture. We saw its potential immediately when it was introduced and now over 15 years later it is the leading data capture solution and no team is more experienced than ours at implementing it. We are the ones that other ABBYY integrators call for their most complex implementations.

While we have designed capture solutions for all types of documents, we have particular expertise in the following areas:

    […]

Why are the prices of OCR applications so different?

OCR software ranges in price from freeware all the way up to tens of thousands of dollars. What explains the difference between these applications? Here’s the breakdown:

  • OCR Freeware uses the SimpleOCR or Tesseract engines and provide limited scanning and output format capabilities. Recognition quality is generally poor except for the highest quality document images.
  • PDF OCR Converters provide good quality OCR engines like ABBYY, IRIS and OmniPage, but limit the output to searchable PDF files. These cost less than $100.
  • Standard OCR applications range from $100-$200 and provide full OCR capabilities including converting scans to Word, Excel, HTML and other editable formats.
  • Corporate OCR applications add advanced features like automated hotfolder processing, concurrent licensing and other features useful for business applications. Pricing for these is $200-$500.
  • OCR Servers provide scalable, enterprise OCR services for processing very high volumes of documents or providing OCR capabilities to users throughout the organization. Prices start around $1,500 and go up based on processing volume.
  • Enterprise Data Capture and Forms Processing applications are used to capture structured data from complex documents like healthcare claim forms and invoices that include things like tables, handwriting, checkboxes, and movable zones. These solutions can cost anywhere from around $1,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on the document volume and complexity of the project.

Knowledge Base

The SimpleOCR Knowledge Base contains frequently asked questions and answers, technical guides and general information on a broad range of optical character recognition, handprint recognition, data capture, PDF OCR, AP invoice scanning and zone OCR applications.

Contact Us for FREE Consultation on Your OCR Project

Tungsten Kofax PaperPort Professional

Tungsten Kofax PaperPort Professional empowers your organization to take control of document management beyond the desktop. With Tungsten PaperPort Professional, office workers or individual professionals can save time and money with instant access to all documents—anytime, anywhere.

Tungsten Kofax PaperPort Standard

Tungsten Kofax PaperPort Standard allows individuals and small organizations to scan, share, search and organize documents in a simple, integrated solution. With Tungsten PaperPort, you can take individual information management to new levels of productivity and security using the ultimate digital filing cabinet.

Tungsten Kofax OmniPage – Ultimate

Tungsten Kofax OmniPage Ultimate has several unique features that make it stand out for a variety of applications. Some of these include auto-redaction, SharePoint integration, automatic filing with barcodes, PDF auto-bookmarking, form data collection and MFP support. Most of these new features are not available in the Standard edition.

Tungsten Kofax OmniPage – Standard

Tungsten Kofax OmniPage Standard converts paper, picture, and PDF files into editable documents to save you considerable time and money by eliminating retyping. Your documents look just like the original – complete with text, tables, and graphics. OmniPage uses superior character accuracy to precisely format your documents so you can easily make changes.

Tungsten Automation formerly Kofax OCR

Tungsten Automation formerly Kofax already had a large variety of products for your business automation like Tungsten Capture for high-volume document scanning and data capture, or Tungsten VRS Elite to deal with less then perfect images and to capture even the toughest to recognize documents.

Recently Tungsten Automation formerly Kofax had acquired Nuance’s Document Imaging Division and thus created one of the most powerful family of products for business automation. With products like OmniPage Ultimate or Standard offers you a good versatile OCR packages for small or mid level businesses. There is also an OmniPage Server option for much larger document volumes.

Kofax OmniPage OCR Software Nuance Scan Soft Ultimate Tungsten OmniPage converts paper, PDF files and forms into documents you can share, edit on your PC, listen to with natural speech, or archive in a document repository. Amazing accuracy, support for virtually any scanner, the best tools to customize your process, and automatic document routing make it the perfect choice to maximize productivity. Improved OCR engines deliver amazing accuracy for document conversion and archiving business critical documents.

Tungsten OmniPage Server is a cost-effective and reliable solution for business process owners to easily deploy a highly scalable, always-available OCR server solution for large volume of documents processing.

Tungsten Power PDF is the smart replacement for Adobe Acrobat for maximum savings without compromise. Power PDF allows you to make changes to PDF files with the fluidity, flexibility and interactivity of real word processing. In addition you can share, edit and discuss document changes using text or voice chat in real-time with multiple people. Plus you can have anywhere, anytime access to your documents using popular Cloud […]

SimpleIndex Barcode Suite

Simple Software SimpleIndex Product Suites offer you a better deal on bundles of essential products.

SimpleIndex Barcode Suite combines best Simple Software products to create a complete Barcode OCR solution. It includes:

  • SimpleIndex Barcode Server  license with built in Accusoft barcode engine and server functionality.
  • SimpleSend solution enables automated sending of document files via secure FTP or email. SimpleSend enhances the functionality of SimpleIndex in several ways as well as functioning as a standalone application.
  • SimpleExport license is designed to convert any delimited text file into any XML or formatted text file format using XSLT. It automates the process of applying XSLTs, especially for document imaging applications where the data has matching files that must be moved or renamed along with the data.
  • 5 licenses of SimpleCoversheet which is designed to work with data sources like SQL databases, spreadsheets and text files to dynamically build lists of barcodes to print. This is especially useful in document scanning applications where barcodes are used to identify and file documents automatically.

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