Product Description

Convert Your Paper Documents and PDF Files into Editable Text Readiris Pro 10 OCR software performs all the tedious retyping work for you in no time. Simply recognize your documents with Readiris Pro and within seconds you have an editable copy of it. Readiris Pro 10 recognizes scanned paper documents, PDF files and all popular image file format and turns them into word processor, spreadsheet, pdf, web pages, xml... files. Readiris Pro 10 is a major release and features more than 40 improvements over previous versions. The power of the new OCR software boosts text recognition accuracy to an unprecedented level!Imagine how easily you could share and archive all your documents and spend your retyping time for more productive tasks! ... Read more

Features

• Flowing text mode for easier editing; enhanced Autoformat technology
• Powerful OCR application with unbeatable speed and accuracy
• Convert paper documents and PDF files into editable text
• Output to Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, WordPerfect, and more
• New user interface; high-quality display of the document image

Features

• Easily create Adobe PDF files—create PDF documents with one-button ease from Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Enjoy improved performance—with improved performance you can quickly convert, collect, and organize Adobe PDF documents.
• Assemble documents—create a single Adobe PDF file from multiple sources—including Web pages and e-mail—to deliver one professional document that anyone can open using free Adobe Reader 7.0 software.
• Protect sensitive and confidential documents—control documents inside and outside the firewall, online and offline.
• Enjoy improved attachment capabilities—easily attach source files such as spreadsheets and images to an Adobe PDF document.

Features

• PDF Create! and PDF Converter for Microsoft Word combined
• Create industry-standard PDF files; password protection
• Convert PDF files into editable Microsoft Word documents and forms
• Easily extract charts and graphs from PDF files for use elsewhere
• Automated batch creation; merge documents; watermarks and stamps

Reviews (3)

Awesome!
PDF Converter 2 Professional is an awesome product! I have been using it for a few weeks and it leaves Acrobat in the dust. I creates PDF files much quicker and with a lot less set-up and hassle. Why hasn't somebody created a product like this before?

Better than Adobe!
Our company has searched high and low for an alternative to Acrobat because we didn't like Adobe's arrogant take-it-or-leave-it attitude about pricing. We couldn't find a product that offered the same functionality from a reputable company until this came along. This PDF Converter product offered the features that almost everyone in our company needed and was much less expensive than Acrobat. When we pilot tested it, everyone found it easy to use. Based on that decision alone we swapped out Acrobat for PDF Converter and saved about $100,000. Now I think I need a raise!

PDF Create rocks!
PDF Create rocks! As a student, I don't have much money and couldn't afford to spend $300 for Acrobat. My teachers wanted papers sent to them electronically in PDFs so I had to go to the library every time I needed to turn something in and use their computer to create one. It was really inconvenient, plus I couldn't go to the library late at night because it wasn't open. One of the staff told me about this product that would create PDFs for $50 from ScanSoft. I bought it and figured I'd just return it if it didn't work out. After I installed it I found it was really easy to use and saved me from having to go back to the library to create PDF files. It's the best $50 I've ever spent. ... Read more

Features

• Quickly turn PC documents, drawings, and images into PDF files
• Compressed file sizes; batch conversion of multiple files at a time
• Advanced font embedding, graphics, and page-size controls
• Password security with 128-bit encryption; watermarks and stamps
• Compatibility with PDF 1.5; does not require Adobe Acrobat

Reviews (2)

Great alternative to Acrobat
This gives me PDF 1.5, passwords and other full-Acrobat features at a fraction of the price. I did read another review on its toolbar shortcuts in Outlook - PDF Create! and Adobe Acrobat have the identical behavior and limitation of Word is the editor for Outlook. Overall, I think the batch processing and merging of many documents into a single PDF as the best feature.

Does not work with MS Word!
Scansoft's PDF Create 2.0 does not work with MS Word when MS Word is used as the email editor in Outlook. The PDF Create toolbar and buttons do not appear in this situation, so there is no way to create a PDF document that has links. You can still print to the PDF print driver (which is Scansoft's "solution" to this problem). But printing does not preserve heading information for creating proper PDF files that have bookmarks. Scansoft's other "solution" to this problem is to stop using MS Word as the Outlook editor. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

IRIS Business Card Reader is an easy way to input your contacts into your computer. Simply slide a business card into your scanner and in seconds the information is automatically transferred to your contact management database. IRIS Business Card Reader will help you keep your contact database up-to-date and it relieves you of the tedious task of having to type card information into your computer.

Powered by the intelligent text recognition software from IRIS, Business Card Reader will accurately recognize and correctly place the information on any business card in the appropriate database fields. The software knows the difference between the first and last name, a city and its state, and a telephone and fax number. IRIS Business Card Reader supports all American and most European business card layouts and recognizes up to 24 languages. ... Read more

Features

• Converts business cards into database records
• Recognizes data types and assigns them to specific database fields
• Exports to any address database
• Sends contacts directly to your contact management software
• For Mac OS 9.x or OS X

Reviews (1)

Writing about a Reader
If you'd still like proof that the average human mind doesn't think in any manner resembling a computer's processor chip (even those computers we love that help us "think different!"), attempt to comprehend the challenge in how a computer "reads" a sheet of paper.

You and I read an article in the newspaper, skip over to a eye-catching advertisement, pull out our wallets and exchange business cards, and all the time, we have learned to scan the item of interest, pick out those words that are important, discard the rest as unnecessary, and go about our busy lives.

But not a computer. A computer lives for those details. And those same details can mire a processor down.

Which in a way is why the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software engine used by ReadIRIS Pro 9.0 is a delight to work with. The people behind the software have helped to link the scanned data into basic patterns and formats ever so much more useful to the daily lives of the user (me, in this case!)

I initially looked into this review by getting my hands on the Business Card Reader (BCR) device, in this version, roman number II, so that I might make my life easier by managing the growing pile of business cards that I collect, and have collected over the past decade, and expect to continue to collect well into the future.

There is something wonderful indeed about business cards, especially in how succinct the summary of a person's relevance. But I digress away from attempting to deal with this growing pile of cards.

Card files don't seem to work for me. But I have enjoyed manually inputting some of my more frequent contacts into Address Books (both Apple's version and Microsoft's Entourage version.) So it seemed an obvious step to begin to input the business cards using a Business Card Reader!

I will warn you -- skip the software that comes "standard" with the current Business Card Reader II. An upgrade is promised, but in the meantime, consider using another ReadIRIS product -- Pro 9.0 (in my case, I tried the corporate edition).

ReadIRIS Pro is a joy to work with. The install was smooth and easy. The software engine (with all files and reference information) installed in less than 80 megabytes. I thought that quite good, especially with how the software promised to handle so many different fonts and language styles.

I tested the software with both a Hewlett Packard scanner and the BCR device. Switching between the two was very quick. I can see how the OCR software could pay for itself due to some of the vast amount of reference materials still unconverted to digital format (the software outputs in text, rich-text, html and pdf formats). Keep in mind however to put aside some time to proof your new documents against the old. If you have a set of material which needs OCR review, one of ReadIRIS Pro 9.0's benefit's shines -- the work you do to input corrections into a dictionary format can help similar documents in basic recognition of font and language skill.

In order to get back to my original project of dealing with my card piles, I was able to get cards read into Entourage's address book in an average of 3 minutes per card. I'm not too quick at typing, but I might have entered them only slightly faster just by doing it all manually. But -- I haven't done this over time. And, I was sort of mesmerized by watching the scanner process my business card stack. That is the fast part. The other portion of the three minute average was spent looking over the scanned data (automatically exported from ReadIRIS Pro 9.0 into Entourage) and "proofing". I was very impressed by the quantity of correct data, even with "pretty" photograph enhanced business cards.

My business card organization project will be ongoing. But now I have a much better tool set.

I definitely recommend the Iris Business Card Reader, but I also recommend contacting the company to see when the enclosed version of software is upgraded, since I didn't benefit from the full corporate version of the software at the listed price. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

OmniPage Pro X eliminates retyping, saving you time and streamlining document production. Create, convert, edit, and distribute digital documents with superior accuracy and improved formatting. Choose from a host of innovative capabilities, such as table recognition. Pro X also adds PDF functionality to extend the software's value beyond the paper world. Now you can convert PDFs into editable documents with a single click, or save paper documents as PDF files with similar ease. All of which adds up to increased productivity and efficiency. Plus, there's the added ease of working with a program built specifically for Mac OS X.

Note: This is an upgrade version. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Thanks for the reviews
Just a quick thank-you to the others who have written. I was set to buy the upgrade, assuming that 'Pro X' meant OS X compatible. Thanks for saving me $130, and turning me on to Readiris - actual OS X software.

It's not fully MAC OS X compatable
This version is not 100% Mac OS X compatable. You have to switch to "Classic" mode to scan a document directly into OmniPage Pro X. No where on the box or in the directions does it tell you this. I found out after using my ONE free technical support call. The Mac OS 8/9 version works the way its supposed to.

I wasted my money.

Scansoft ignores the Mac Platform.
I bought this software when it first came out 2 years ago to use with OS X. Since buying it Scansoft has not released one update or bug fix for the program. It will not work with any Photoshop plugins in OS X. I have tried to get it to work with my Canon Lide 30 scanner with no success whatsoever.

You would think when you buy an expensive software program you would at least get free email support. No way with Scansoft! Their philosophy is to milk their customers for as much as they can get, charging $20 for each support question by email.

If you need to buy an OCR program for your Mac I would highly recommend buying Readiris instead. Although far from a perfect program, it puts OmniPage to shame. Unlike Scansoft they do provide free email support. Readiris is also very good at preserving the format of a document when translated into Word Processing and Text Editing programs. This is something that OmniPage fails miserably at.

Inferior to prior versions
I've used Omnipage for years, going through almost all the versions since the first. When an upgrade appeared it consistently offered incremental improvements and I rarely had to even glance at the user's manual.

Not so with this version. In some key respects it is not apparent how it works even after consulting the manual. There are many more errors in text and formatting. Saves don't even go smoothly. I would guess that something that formerly took me 45 minutes now takes me several hours, including corrections. And I still don't know why the text selection doesn't flow from one page to the next in a multi-page document, as it used to. This product should have been put in the "leave well enough alone category." ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

PaperPort Deluxe 8.0 is a terrific way to streamline your life, both personal and professional. Even if your goal is not a paperless home or office, its hard to argue that getting rid of the excess and getting organized isn't a great idea.

Installing PaperPort Deluxe 8.0 was a quick and easy process, especially since the program incorporates any scanner software that you might already use. PaperPort Deluxe 8.0 offers teaching demos for the inexperienced user, but we found this program to be highly intuitive for those familiar with windows-based navigation and functions. One thing we did notice--PaperPort Deluxe takes a heavy toll on your system's resources, so you may want to close out of especially taxing programs while running this software.

PaperPort Deluxe 8.0 includes tons of valuable features that make paying bills, organizing your home office, or doing your taxes faster and easier. You can organize your images using folders and subfolders that can be color-coded, and then annotate them with your comments, dates, history, and contexts. Manage your files visually with clear thumbnails, make use of the PaperPort search engine (which allows you to search for your documents by keywords and phrases), or drag any digital image into a Word document or spreadsheet for instant editing. For business users, PaperPort Deluxe 8.0 allows files to be shared electronically via PaperPort Online. PaperPort also does photos, so you can create albums, and add notes, flags, and annotations to keep your photographs organized and secure.

Perfect for the home office user, student, or small business owner, PaperPort 8.0 makes it easy to clean up your workspace and get organized. Depending on the speed of your scanner, PaperPort Deluxe 8.0 could possibly be faster than looking for another inch of space in your already overcrowded file drawer. --Kendra Hayden ... Read more

Reviews (24)

Paperport, works great with a few minor problems
I am upgrading from Pagis scanning software produced by the same company. I decided to upgrade to Paperport 8.0 last week (3/10/03) Right after I got my copy I saw on the Scansoft website that a new version is out already, 9.0. An upgrade is listed as $....

The program works fine. Seems a little less powerful in some of the editing and file manipulation abilities of pagis. It works better with Windows XP. One glitch, it cannot directly import my Pagis files with an *.XIF format! I have read that the new version (9.0) has a pagis importer built in.

My overall comment: If you are upgrading from Pagis wait for version 9.0 to be widely available. So I now have to upgrade or buy the newer version to have XIF compatibility?

Came with my visioneer scanner & it was love at first sight!
Works great for me.
I showed it to coworker's (whose scanners came with a different software package) and they liked it so much that they ordered paperport for their systems.

Stable. Not buggy.

All around nice program.

Paperless home
I have a paperless home now, thanks to PaperPort Deluxe. I've used it since the early versions.

I scan all of my bills, and store them electronically.

However, I recommend getting version 9. The primary file type documents are stored in is the propriatary MAX file format and extension. Version 9 has a PDF file generator, and the MAX file viewer may eventually go the way of the dinosaur. Only this company's products use it, and it's not directly supported in Windows. Company mergers and buyouts happen all of the time, but I have a feeling that PDF will be supported for many many years to come. Version 8 will store MOST PDF files, but won't generate them from scanned pages. Some encodings of PDF files will for some reason not open in version 8. Version 9 seems to handle them all.

If you only want to keep papers short term, this version is more than adequate. But if you're looking at 5-20 year retention, then you really should get the version 9 for the PDF capability. I say 5 years is critical, because future versions of Windows may eventually stop supporting this version of the program. For example, this software will NOT load on Windows 3.1...and may barely load on Windows 95. Operating systems do move ahead, and companies often just release new software to keep up.

Manages to barely keep up, but the basic product is great
I have used Paperport for years. It is an outstanding product with wonderful features. Version 8.0 Deluxe is the best yet and worth the upgrade. Unfortunately, in spite of some nice new features, there are some old things that don't work anymore or have been put in out of the way places so they are no longer readily accessable. In spite of that I am happy with the upgrade to 8.0 because of its improved robustness.

As a new user, be aware that there are also certain bugs and usability problems that never get fixed. And occassionally they re-arrange the user interface for the worse. Why they can't put functions that I use a lot on the toolbars or allow customizable toolbars, I'll never know. There is a long list of suggested bug fixes and wish list features I sent them years ago, none of which have been addressed.

They don't really seem to listen to the user community or to make changes other than to add "features" that they can use to sell new users or encourage upgrades (typical software company).

That said, the core feature set is worth having. I consider it a necessary piece of software, in just the same way a Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Web Browser, Email reader are necessary. This is a Document Storage and Filing system.

You can store scanned documents in PP. It has a builtin OCR engine. You can print documents to PP (ie. print a web page you want to always have offline into PP via a "dummy" printer). You can just drag a Word or Excel, etc document into PP. You can stack and unstack pages. Straighten scanned pages (others don't need it). And you can store photos (jpgs, gifs, tifs, etc). It also has some ok photo manipulation, cut and paste, crop, etc type of features.

Get organized and paperless easily
I upgraded to Paperport 8 when I will upgraded to Windows XP. I have been using Paperport for many years. I keep hard copies very few documents. Other than my tax return, pretty much everything else is filed electronically.

I originally used PaperPort to organize my scanned documents but have found that it allows me to have a virtually paperless office. With PaperPort, you can create folders and subfolders just as you would organize a file cabinet. You can scan your documents to these different folders. Even better, you can select PaperPort as your printer and print directly to PaperPort. For example if you purchased something online, you would "print" the receipt to your designated PaperPort folder and never have to deal with a sheet of paper. You can similarly store downloaded items from the Internet, such as a bill or bank statement. You can electronically file any document from any application that allows you to print.

It's easy-to-use interface also allows you to drag the scanned item to different applications you might have, such as your faxing software, Outlook, or Adobe Acrobat. You can also use it to save a file into jpeg or other formats.

I have not experienced the CPU drain that others describe. I am using PaperPort on a computer with 512 MB of RAM. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

A professional OCR program that satisfies even the most demanding user, FineReader Professional provides unsurpassed accuracy of text recognition, excellent layout retention, and unmatched productivity.

This latest version delivers significant improvements in word accuracy and format retention, new ease-of-use features, added saving options, plus PDF conversion. As a result, FineReader 6.0 Professional is the most advanced OCR software, empowering users to easily convert paper-based documents and scanned images into editable text with superior accuracy.

The Scan&Read wizard guides users through document recognition step by step, while a tutorial offers handy, professional tips. Batch Document Support provides you with the tools you need to work with multi-page documents. Commands such as "Read", "Rotate", "Locate blocks", "Despeckle", and "Save" can all be applied universally, with control maintained through thumbnail diagnostic icons. You can even add your own comments to a page. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Very much the best
I do a great deal of OCR in my research and have scanned tens of thousands of FineReader 6 (FR6). I have also tried every other OCR software that is available for PCs. There are other good packages that can serve some needs adequately, but for my work, FR6 is superior in every respect. In particular it is substantially better than the most popular OCR program, OmniPage Pro 12, as well as quite a bit less expensive. Others might have different preferences depending on what they do and what their equipment and software are.

The bulk of my scanning/OCR involves academic articles and historical materials. For the most part I produce PDF files, although I also scan some tables to produce spreadsheets and do some scanning to Word files. Depending on the quality of the original and my precise purpose I may make a PDF with an image and hidden text, an OCR text file, or an OCR text file with images of uncertain words. I use an HP 7450 scanner connected to a Windows 2000 system with a 1.8 GHz P4 processor and 512 MB of RAM.

On this system, FR6 is quite speedy and normally can perform recognition as rapidly as the fastest of desktop scanners will scan. It offers a choice of a fully automatic mode, partly automatic modes, or a very wide selection of user-specified modes. New users will get very good results on most material using the automatic mode and can learn to use its more powerful features as their needs dictate. Even in its automatic mode FR6 is superior to other packages in recognizing difficult text, speed, tools for correcting errors that do appear, and flexibility of output.

One notable and important strength of FR 6 for my purposes is its ability to deal with the many superscripts, subscripts, and special symbols in the typical academic article. FR6, by contrast, gives reasonably good accuracy with such material and makes it easy to correct the mistakes that do crop up. Very often I can scan an entire 20-page article and find not a single mistake.

As I say, there are other products which will no doubt serve many people well. If something else comes free my advice would be to try it and see if it fills your needs. However, if you find you need something better, FR6 is the clear choice.

If you do have another product be sure to see if you qualify for a "competitive upgrade" to FR6 at an even lower price...

Recently ABBYY has brought out version 7.0, which for some reason Amazon carries only in the expensive "corporate" edition, intended for networked operations. The improvements over version 6.0 include somewhat better recognition accuracy; manual control over page splitting; ability to read PDF files, edit, and re-save the edited file in PDF or another format; and improved editing tools. It is definitely worth getting version 7.0 rather than 6.0, but it appears that you have to go to some other vendor than Amazon to get the consumer-oriented "professional" edition.

Multilingual OCR that works!
The FineReader OCR package performs as advertized. I required a package that worked with other alphabets and FineReader fit the bill. I was able to perform OCR on faint 9.5 point Czech typeface with no training -- and I got Czech spell checking to boot.The package is so simple that I failed to read the manual for the first week of use, then when I finally read it, discovered all kinds of OCR aids built into the package. The FineReader does everything I need and more. What's more, you can download a fully operational package and use it for two weeks to be sure it does what you want.

Abbyy FineReader 6.0 Professional Upgrade
Integrates well with Word. Works well under both Windows 98 and Windows XP Professional edition. Using with Mustek Bearpaw 1200 USB scanner with no problems. Marked improvement over the TextBridge software that came with the scanner. Works well with both photos, handwriting documents, and typed documents. Would highly recommend this product for both home and business use.

Register the Product to get Form Filler
I haven't used any other OCR software packages except the one that came with my scanner. Abby FinePoint is, obviously, far superior. So far, I've had good results. Tables aren't as automatic as I'd like, but things have been moving more and more quickly. It's fairly easy to format tables and graphics. I also like that it doesn't put whole pages of text in text boxes. This was one of the main reasons I decided to upgrade. It was making it difficlut to flawlessly merge multipage documents. Abbyy FinePoint is far better.

A couple of things that were't clear to me:
The Presto! OCR 4.0 that CNET recomments is made by Abbyy and is based on their v. 3.0, so you might as well go with the Abbyy 6.0. ...

You can buy the upgrade is you have ANY OCR software. I upgraded from the version of Presto! that came as Epson Smart Pannel. That makes this package a great deal.

It was also a good deal for me because if you register the product, you get Abbyy FormFiller free. The eliminates the need to ever use a typewriter again. Great for any sort of applications, in my case grant applications. It's saving me tons of time and hassle. ...

You can download a sample version .... I highly recommend trying it before buying. ... Read more

Features

• Powerful OCR application with unbeatable speed and accuracy
• Convert paper documents and PDF files into editable text
• Output to Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, WordPerfect, and more
• New user interface; high-quality display of the document image
• Flowing text mode for easier editing; enhanced Autoformat technology

Reviews (1)

great for scripts
This software allowed me to convert a script that I did not have a digital copy of in a few hours. It was simple and kept almost all the correct format. Unbelievable! I did not even know something like this was out until I bought a new printer/scanner and OCR software was on the CD. When I got this job I purchased ReadIris 9.0 and it more than paid for itself the first time I used it. Thank you IRIS! ... Read more

Product Description

PDF Create! 3.0 ... Read more

Features

• Combine different formats into one PDF - Easily merge Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Visio, JPEG, TIFF and PDF files into a single multi-page PDF document
• Instantly turn entire Web pages into searchable PDF files that you can easily save and share
• Archive important E-mail and attachments into searchable PDF files that can be saved on your PC

Features

• New OCR technology for rapid and accurate information taken straight from your business cards
• Intelligent business card processing with automatic orientation, deskewing & cropping
• Powerful contact database for archiving, searching, selecting and exporting your contacts
• Define which fields you want to print as a list, or as labels -- all popular label formats are supported
• Synchronizes with your PDA or conatct database - Pocket PC, Outlook, ACT!, Lotus Notes, GoldMine & more

Reviews (1)

cardiris3
This operates pretty simply, but for the price I would have expected more features. The OCR is fair with only 10-15% of the cards populating the fields all correctly.
Major drawbacks are that cards with black color in them split into two cards.
No crop or straighten tool (the program claims to auto-straighten but does not work well)I fixed this by using an Avery (7600) clear 3 ring binder card holder page to keep the cards straight while scanning. This has helped a lot. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

OmniPage Pro X eliminates retyping, saving you time and streamlining document production. Create, convert, edit, and distribute digital documents with superior accuracy and improved formatting. Choose from a host of innovative capabilities, such as table recognition. Pro X also adds PDF functionality to extend the software's value beyond the paper world. Now you can convert PDFs into editable documents with a single click, or save paper documents as PDF files with similar ease. All of which adds up to increased productivity and efficiency. Plus, there's the added ease of working with a program built specifically for Mac OS X. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Doesn't satisfy this long-time user
I've used Omnipage for years, going through almost all the versions since the first. When an upgrade appeared it consistently offered incremental improvements and I rarely had to even glance at the user's manual.

Not so with this version. In some key respects it is not apparent how it works even after consulting the manual. There are many more errors in text and formatting. Saves don't even go smoothly. I would guess that something that formerly took me 45 minutes now takes me several hours, including corrections. And I still don't know why the text selection doesn't flow from one page to the next in a multi-page document, as it used to. This product should have been put in the "leave well enough along category." ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

FineReader Sprint 4.0 turns your scanned documents into editable electronic files in seconds. This versatile optical character recognition (OCR) scanning software features full-color OCR and full layout retention. FineReader seamlessly saves your documents to popular office programs such as Microsoft Excel, Word, and other Office 2000 applications, as well as in WordPerfect and WordPro formats. It retains page layout, including columns, tables, graphics, and fonts. And, if you've got a document that's less than ideal to begin with, no worries--you'll still get great results, and you'll never have to retype a document again.

FineReader Sprint 4.0 delivers over 99 percent accuracy. One-button scanning and recognition makes using the software a breeze. This program recognizes typographic text in 53 languages, ranging from Afrikaans to Ukrainian and every language in between. Save recognition results in text and Rich Text file formats. FineReader handily batch-processes images with great speed and identifies unrecognizable characters by bolding text. You can manually mark blocks as well as set scanner brightness and resolution. With full support for the Twain protocol, this program is compatible with just about every Twain-compliant scanner available. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Careful with demo
The demo will not save your files but will not tell you why. It looks like the file is saved but it is not. The resulting Word documents, PDFs and HTML pages will be empty. It turns out that it is a limitation of the demo version, but the program does not bother to tell you. I think this is rude and misleading.

After a Quick Look
I received the standard version, but did not know the CD has two versions; the "Pro" version is included as a try/ buy demo, while the standard version is primitive. Text recognition is good, but preservation of the origninal layout is poor. I was dismayed when the scan result completely dropped a column of numbers on my first trial scan, and would not pick it up unless I manually blocked the column, but then everything else was dropped. I tried a scan combining text and graphics, and the result was very garbled. The resulting file transfered well into WordPerfect, but not into MS Word, as claimed. The "Pro" version did somewhat better, but not to my satisfaction. I need something else. This product is supposed to recognize characters of 53 languages (especially Russian), so for some people that may be the deciding feature.

The great OCR software
I think it is a best software on OCR market. It's easy-to-use, fast, multilingual. It has a lot of possibilities, works with cells, rotated texts, graphics and so. The try-and-buy version are aviable. Enjoy! ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Does not work well - Go with Scansoft instead
The I used to have Scansoft Textbridge and Omnipage and got ReadIris Pro to change. I mad a mistake the OCR from Scansoft is way better, it performs very well and Textbridge is much easier to use than Readiris.

Don't do my mistake, stick to Scansoft, they also have a better customer and technical support than IRIS

Worst OCR software I've ever seen
Apart from the program crashing every other time it is used, the features are archaic and besides, it requires you register within 30 days of installation or else ... it blows up - just like win XP.

I will recommend OmniPage any day over "readiris". I'm extremely disappointed over the purchase and unfortunately, no money back on this junk.

Great software solution for scanning!
I am very happy with Readiris Pro 8. It was very fast and accurate. I was impressed at the quality of software I received for the price. The program was really easy to use and I have already gotten my money's worth out of this program in just a week.

The best scanner software on the market!
I've tried them all, and IRIS's new 8.0 version truly stands in a category by itself. Simply to use, fast and accurate, the product easily scanned my documents and converted into editable text. The software turned my document into a PDF file without using Acrobat. Amazing! Most impressed with the perfect layout retention ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

With the Readiris Pro series, I.R.I.S. has taken a quick, accurate OCR program and given it the ability to detect page layout and reproduce images. Readiris Pro 7.0 does a decent job at what it's supposed to do, but it's not without a fair number of flaws and flukes.

The problems for us started with installation. Readiris Pro didn't recognize our Microtek flatbed scanner when we went through the otherwise handy setup wizard. It did, however, when we asked it to check out our TWAIN drivers through the File menu. When we were further plagued, this time by error dialogs, we were told by I.R.I.S. tech support that XP users need a patch, which is available through the cluttered I.R.I.S. Web site.

Readiris Pro, like any OCR program, scans a document and then imports it into a word processing program such as Microsoft Word. The program scans text-only documents with alarming accuracy, and its error count is reduced by an interactive learning feature that verifies letters it doesn't understand. It faithfully recreates double-column text, and even text scattered in little blocks, newspaper style.

Readiris Pro is supposed to be able to grab pages with images and recreate them with similar ease, but it had trouble with some of the pages we scanned. Sometimes it saw parts of logos--which should come through as graphics--as letters. Stylized lettering gave the program recognition trouble. In one case, it saw a table as a graphic, making it impossible to edit in Word.

Through its problems, Readiris Pro is a workable OCR program, but it's worth your time to check out reviews of its competition. --Joel Durham, Jr. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Good Value for Home User
Readiris Pro 7 installed smoothly into Windows XP Home Edition on a Clean Boot, as recommended in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 310353. It interfaces with many, possibly most, common word-processing software. The scanning and interpretation process is quick at the recommended 300 dpi level (my Epson scanner is on a USB 2.0 port.) Initial, out-of-box, accuracy seems to improve by tweaking the contrast and brightness options and hopefully will continue to improve by using the "learn" option of interpreting data which it questions. At Amazon's current price it's a good value for a home user! ... Read more