ABBYY FineReader is an optical character recognition

Optical character recognition

Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the mechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used to convert books and documents into electronic files, to computerize a record-keeping...

 (OCR) application developed by ABBYY

ABBYY

ABBYY is a Russian software company, headquartered in Moscow, that provides optical character recognition, document capture and language software for both PC and mobile devices.-History:ABBYY was founded in 1989 by David Yang...

.

FineReader was designed as a professional-level application for converting scanned images, photographs of documents and PDF files into editable and searchable formats such as Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...

, Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is a proprietary commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications...

, Microsoft Powerpoint

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint, usually just called PowerPoint, is a non-free commercial presentation program developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite, and runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple's Mac OS X operating system...

, Rich Text Format

Rich Text Format

The Rich Text Format is a proprietary document file format with published specification developed by Microsoft Corporation since 1987 for Microsoft products and for cross-platform document interchange....

, HTML

HTML

HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....

, PDF/A

PDF/A

PDF/A is an ISO-standardized version of the Portable Document Format specialized for the digital preservation of electronic documents.PDF/A differs from PDF by omitting features ill-suited to long-term archiving, such as font linking...

, searchable PDF, CSV

Comma-separated values

A comma-separated values file stores tabular data in plain-text form. As a result, such a file is easily human-readable ....

 and text file

Text file

A text file is a kind of computer file that is structured as a sequence of lines of electronic text. A text file exists within a computer file system...

s.

ABBYY FineReader is in competition with Nuance

Nuance Communications

Nuance Communications is a multinational computer software technology corporation, headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, USA, that provides speech and imaging applications...

 OmniPage

OmniPage

OmniPage is an optical character recognition application available from Nuance Communications.OmniPage was one of the first OCR programs to run on personal computers....

 and Readiris

Readiris

Readiris is optical character recognition software for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. It is produced by Belgian company Image Recognition Integrated Systems Group S.A. I.R.I.S. Group...

 as well as free software

Free software

Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...

 for optical character recognition.

Versions

Professional Edition

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

 version, intended for individual users, self-employed professionals and small and home offices

Corporate Edition

Microsoft Windows version, intended for small and medium-sized businesses

Site License Edition

Microsoft Windows version, intended for large organizations

Express Edition for Mac

Macintosh

Macintosh

The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...

 version for Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5, & 10.6

Reception

In May 2008 Edward Mendelson

Edward Mendelson

Edward Mendelson is a professor of English and Comparative Literature and the Lionel Trilling Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University. He is the literary executor of the Estate of W. H. Auden and the author or editor of several books about Auden's work, including Early Auden and Later...

, writing for PC Magazine

PC Magazine

PC Magazine is a computer magazine published by Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009...

, rated FineReader version 9 as 4/5 “Very Good” and said: “In some significant ways, it has an edge over its long-established competitor OmniPage Professional, though in other ways, OmniPage remains the leader. The one you'll prefer depends on the way you work.”

In November 2009 Edward Mendelson again reviewed the product and rated FineReader version 10 as 4.5/5 “Very Good” and said: “Finereader ran almost neck and neck with Omnipage Professional 17 this year (that app is a bit faster and has some high-end automation features lacking in Finereader), but if you care about getting the best possible OCR output with the fewest possible frustrations and annoyances, Finereader 10 is the clear choice.”

External links

• Company list of awards & reviews