Program for document correction. How to fix scanned text

To save electronic copies of original “paper” documents, they are scanned. Sometimes duplicates obtained in this way are recognized using OCR applications combined with scanning programs, and sometimes they are saved as an image. Often, after scanning, some changes are made to the original document that need to be reflected in the electronic copy. You can edit the scan in several ways.

Instructions

If scanning was carried out in text recognition mode, then the contents of the resulting document can be changed even before it is saved - most programs designed for scanning and recognition have built-in text editors. For example, in the FineReader program, popular among Russian-speaking scanner users, each page of a document scanned and converted into text format opens in a separate window with an editing menu, the functionality of which is similar to that of a regular text editor. If the scanned and recognized text was saved to a file, then you can change it with a standard text editor. For this, use, for example, Microsoft Word - this word processor is capable of reading most of the formats used to save texts with OCR programs.

If the scanned document was saved in image format, then you should use some kind of graphic editor to edit it. In some cases, the standard Paint application installed by default with the Windows operating system will be sufficient. Open a file containing an image of scanned text, select the area of ​​the image that needs to be replaced, and fill it with a color that matches the background of the document. Then select a size, color, and font that matches the text, and print a new piece over the filled area. However, in most cases, replacing text requires more careful work with the image - copying background areas and placing copies on top of the text in several layers, deforming the typed text in accordance with the state of the original document, copying and pasting individual letters and words of the text, etc. Therefore, a more advanced graphics editor - for example, Adobe Photoshop - is much more suitable for this work.

There is another way to replace a fragment of the source text in a scanned document saved as an image. It can be used if it is possible to scan a new fragment with edited text. The desired text can be printed on the same (or the same) paper as the original document, so the appearance of the original and corrected fragments will match to a greater extent than can be achieved in a graphics editor. The scanned part of the text must then be superimposed on the document being edited using any graphic editor - such an operation is provided in almost all applications of this kind.

When working with documents and large databases, various problems often arise. This does not mean errors in the documentation that require adjustments and corrections. It's about simple laziness. But, as you know, laziness is the engine of progress.

People at all times wanted to quickly get rid of routine work and devote more time to relaxation.

But in order to do something pleasant calmly and carefree, you first need to do your job well. Very often, if documents need to be entered into a register or database, a large amount of information has to be retyped. This process often gets boring for users. To simplify this process, you can use a scanner and editing program.

Scanner Features

A scanner is a special device that allows you to transfer text from a printed source (magazine, newspaper, book, etc.) to a computer screen. The result of the scanner is an image of the page of the original document. Some devices use special programs that allow you to control the entire scanning process. It is also possible to select the format in which the material used will be converted. Scanning actually produces a simple snapshot of the document. Due to the inability to recognize characters, editing the document will not be possible.

What can you do with a scanned document?

The resulting document can be easily managed by editing the entire text or just a fragment of it. For this purpose, a special program for editing scanned documents is usually used. The main function of such utilities is to recognize a scanned image and convert it into a text fragment. It can be edited and processed later. Today you can find a lot of similar programs and applications. Each of them has its own characteristics and nuances. Let's look at some of these software products.

ABBYY FineReader

The most common program for editing scanned images is ABBYY FineReader. This software product is a set of editors designed to perform all kinds of operations with scanned documents. The program can recognize text documents from photographs of any quality. The program also implements the ability to recognize multi-level documents containing pictures, tables and other details. The functionality of the program allows you to set the language during text recognition.

You can also specify proper comparison symbols. This makes it possible to perform text recognition with a minimum number of errors. ABBYY FineReader works great with documents in PDF format. So, if you need to edit a file of this format, you can do this easily and without extra effort, just use ABBYY FineReader.

The program has a convenient and intuitive interface. To use this software product you do not need to have any special skills. It is precisely this accessibility of ABBYY FineReader that influenced its popularity among users around the world. After completing the text recognition process, you can easily open the file with the result and correct the errors that the program made. You can do this without leaving the editor menu. The result will ultimately be saved in the form of a separate document, which can be edited at any time.

Subtleties of working with PDF format

If the source file is in PDF format, then you can use some tricks when working with it. In the process of recognizing PDF files, it is especially convenient to use FineReader, but the cost of this software product often repels users and forces them to look for similar software products. Fortunately, there are several utilities that can be used to perform text recognition in PDF files.

PDFill PDF Tools

This program is designed specifically for working with files in PDF format. It has a number of separate options that allow you to combine several documents into one or, conversely, divide one document into several. PDFill PDF Tools also allows you to edit the contents of PDF files and convert them into images. In addition, the program makes it possible to create lists, work with embedded images, align text and carry out other operations that the user can perform when working with the Microsoft Office software package.

The program is distributed completely free of charge. It is intended for both home and corporate use. There are, of course, disadvantages. One of them is the program interface. It can't be called comfortable. But this drawback is more than compensated for by the wide range of program functions. It is also worth considering that there is no Russian version of PDFill PDF Tools yet.

Free PDF Editor

Another free application that you can use to edit PDF files is Free PDF Editor. The program has a simple and intuitive interface and is supported by many common operating systems. The only drawback of Free PDF Editor is this: the scanned result cannot be edited. You can scan directly into the program. However, you will have to additionally tinker with setting up a virtual printer. Otherwise the program will simply refuse to work.

OCR editor

If we are going to talk about free analogues of the ABBYY Fine Reader program, then we should definitely mention a program called OCR Form. This useful and functional utility will especially appeal to those users who have to work with several languages ​​at once. OCR supports over twenty foreign languages. The utility also copes well with poor quality documents and printing. However, it also has its drawbacks. The program does not work very well with handwritten text.

Of course, the functionality of the program includes the possibility of operations with handwritten text, but the quality of the result is, to put it mildly, questionable. If we talk about the appearance of the program, then OCR may well be a worthy competitor to paid applications. Working with the program is very simple: just open the desired file, scan it and save it in the desired format. Another feature due to which OCR has gained popularity among users is the ability to self-learn. The program is equipped with an adaptive recognition system, which allows for better and better text recognition with each new request.

Another program from the OCR family is SimpleOCR.

This utility is a simplified analogue of OCR. This program has the ability to manually add words using the built-in editor. By the way, text editing can be done directly in the program window. You can work on several files at once. The program has a slightly unusual interface that can be confusing. But if you spend some time working with this program, you will get a very useful tool for editing scanned text.

Working with Images

In some cases, you have to deal with scanned documents in jpg format. Then the text recognition process will be carried out according to a completely different principle. After all, you need to not only recognize the picture, but also bring it to an acceptable form. For example, if you need to scan a diagram from a textbook, traces of ink from other pages will appear on the scan. In order to get rid of these shortcomings, you can use special graphic editors.

You can use an advanced tool such as Photoshop for this purpose. It can be used to edit scanned documents. Photoshop allows you to get rid of imperfections such as ink marks and smudges. You can also change the brightness and color of the image using various filters. On the Internet you can find many video tutorials on working with this software product. There are many other graphic editors with which you can edit a scanned document.

Quite often among scanner users the question arises of how to edit a scanned document. In general, this kind of problem can be solved by using special software or an online service that supports conversion from PDF to any format convenient for editing. Below you can familiarize yourself with several popular software and services that will help you convert scanned documents for further editing.

Solving a problem using OCR

If you need to edit scanned documents, then use any OCR program whose function is optical character recognition. This software compares the characters in the scanned file with those characters that are in its database. After this, the program of this category converts the file into a convenient text format. However, keep in mind that not all OCRs can work for free - there are many paid options among them. Also keep in mind that depending on how well you scan the original, you may encounter various errors when editing the finished scan. To directly solve the problem related to how to edit scanned text, follow the following instructions:

• Download the OCR program from the official website of the developer or any reliable web resource and install it.
• Open the file you are editing in the program window. This process may differ for each software of this type, but in general you will need to open the file and then start the conversion process. Many of these programs allow you to select the appropriate output file format. The main thing is that the changed document type is convenient for you.
• After the conversion is completed, you will need to remove formatting from the finished file if there are any problems with it. The fact is that the software can take into account formatting, for example, fonts, line spacing, if the scanned file is not scanned smoothly enough. To remove formatting, use any text editor, for example, the usual Notepad. It, as a rule, is not able to recognize formatting, so you can paste text into it without unnecessary code.
• At the end, you need to open a new document in any convenient editor and begin the process of editing scanned documents. Be sure to use the spell check function to find all errors in time and correct them. But formatting errors will have to be corrected manually.

But before you turn on the scanner and scan this or that text, you should initially decide on an optical character recognition program that is convenient for you. Below you can see some of the most popular and widespread among them:

1. One of the most famous programs in the OCR category is ABBYY FineReader, which operates on a paid basis. This software is used to convert scans into text files using patented algorithms that allow you to recognize even text that is not of very high quality. In general, the advantages of the program lie in the high accuracy of text recognition, the ability to transform the entire structure and appearance of scanned text. Consequently, it will leave not only the text in its place, but also tables, drawings, etc.
2. Readiris Pro is also a fairly common OCR program that has a very user-friendly interface. With its help, you can save recognized text in formats such as XPS, OpenOffice, PDF, Word and Excel. It should be added that this program allows you to work with more than a hundred languages ​​of the world and the DjVu format.
3. Freemore OCR is a program that is completely free. With its help, you can quickly extract graphics and text from scanned images. The extracted text can be saved as a Word document. In addition, it has a multi-page recognition function. But keep in mind that the program interface is only in English. However, this circumstance does not affect the ease of use.

Solving a problem using online services

If you are interested in the answer to the question of how to edit a scanned document without installing special software applications, then use any online service that offers converting images to text. Usually all these resources work according to the same scheme. You just need to upload a scan of the document, having first saved it in PDF format, then follow the recommendation to select the desired task and click on something like “Convert” (it’s different everywhere). Then the service will give you the finished file in the form of a Word document.

• One of the most convenient and best services offering converting PDF to Word for the purpose of editing a scan is smallpdf.com. Its advantages include a simple interface, fast operation, excellent quality results, support for working with Dropbox and Google Drive, and a lot of additional functions. You can only use it for free twice an hour. If necessary, you can purchase a paid Pro account, as a result of which the list of functions will be significantly expanded.
• Zamzar.com is also a fairly convenient online conversion service. It features the ability to batch process files, a large number of conversion options, and is fast. Moreover, you can use this resource absolutely free. However, there are size restrictions - no more than 50 MB. To remove this limit, you will have to pay the corresponding tariff. In addition, the result can only be received by e-mail, which you will have to first enter before downloading the file.

A scanner is a device that recognizes objects, images or documents and writes their visual image into a graphic file that can be edited in various ways. For what purpose is this operation usually performed? How to edit a scanned document?

The word “editing” in this case should be understood as:

Editing as image modification

As we noted above, the scanner, when processing a document or other object, subsequently creates a static image based on its image in the form of a separate graphic file - for example, in Jpeg format. The most common editing needs are:

• surface adjustment (resizing, reflecting, rotating by a specified number of degrees, adjusting color balance);
• editing image elements (changing their appearance, deleting, adding new ones).

Superficial correction of the image received from the scanner can be carried out using the most accessible types of software that are installed in Windows by default. What is the easiest program to edit a scanned document? It will probably be Paint. Important file editing options are located in the program menu, as well as on the toolbar of its interface.

Launching Paint is very easy: click (in Windows up to version 7 inclusive) “Start”, then “All Programs” - “Accessories” - Paint. Then, using the interface of this software, open the desired file and make the necessary adjustments to it.

A more complex procedure - editing image elements - can involve a wide range of possible operations: from applying a small retouch or letters to a picture to merging it with another graphic file in the form of a collage. Depending on the complexity of the relevant procedure, it will be necessary to use one or another type of software.

If the operations with the image are simple (for example, the matter is limited to drawing letters on it), then you can use the same Paint. In the toolbar of this program, which is located on the left of its interface, you need to select “Text”. With its help, block letters are applied to the image.

Editing text and other formatting in an image

How to edit scanned documents using these programs? These solutions function like this: they process an image, recognize text and other formatting objects present on it, and then enter them into a separate file, which can, in turn, be opened using text editors - Word, OpenOffice and their analogues - and freely edit.

Subsequently, you can place the modified text (tables, lists) on the same scanned image from which it was originally recognized. In order to carry out this procedure, you need to open the corresponding graphic file in an editing program - for example, Paint, in one window, and in another - the recognized and edited text (tables, lists). Having made the second window active, you need to take a screenshot of the text (a snapshot of the current image on the monitor screen) using the Print Screen Sysrq key, then paste it into Paint (using the Ctrl and V combination), and then place it on the scanned image as required .

A similar need may arise, for example, for a magazine cover designer who needs to edit the text placed on it, and if for some reason he does not have the source file. He can recognize the necessary paragraphs from the paper page of the publication, make edits to them, and then place them again, in an altered form, on a scanned image of the page.

When working with paper documents, manuscripts or books, there is often a need to convert everything into electronic format. This opens up many more possibilities and greatly simplifies the editing process. If you have a scanner or a high-resolution digital camera, this will not be difficult, but then the question arises: how to convert a scanned document into Word format? To avoid having to retype everything manually, you should use specialized software.

Software solutions for converting scanned documents

Such a task should not cause difficulties. Modern programs allow you to either partially edit a scanned document or completely convert it into a convenient Word format. Moreover, this can be done in just a few minutes.

Tip: Thanks to high-speed Internet, you can easily find the right program for editing scanned documents. Moreover, you can now use online text recognition services.

Among the popular programs for performing such operations are:

1. ABBYY FineReader (including online);

3. Readiris PRO;

6. online service OCR Convert, etc.

Rich functionality and ease of use make them quite popular. High reliability and performance are valued by both ordinary users and business representatives. Even an inexperienced person can quickly figure out how to scan a document in Word.

Text recognition and conversion of scanned documents

Usually you have to deal with pictures in .jpg, .tiff, .png, .bmp format - this is the result of scanning or photographing. How to convert a scanned document into Word for further work? The text cannot be edited in the usual ways. Some scanners support automatic conversion to .pdf format, but the capabilities are still limited.

To get a full-fledged text document, you should upload the file into the program through a special form (click “open” or “download”). To improve accuracy, you can specify a page range and select a specific area of ​​text. After some time, the preliminary result will appear. After this, all that remains is to save the .doc file so that you can later figure out how to edit the scanned document using MS Word.