Need to scan text off of an image and convert to a real text file. How?
 

If I have an image with a lot of text on it, what software, if any, can read that text, extract it, and put it in a text file?

I would like something like this too actually.

Great question. I was thinking about this the other day.

You need OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software. It comes on many machines with a built in fax software, as well as a lot of printers with built in scanners. ABBYY finereader is one example, that you might already have.

You can also try saving the document as a PDF, then exporting it as plain text. Otherwise, a quick search shows a lot of results for 'free OCR software'.

Abby Fine Reader is best pic to text software that covers almost all, really rocks and it's fast and very good recognition!

Google Docs

OCR has been invented around 1996 or so ;)

Never needed such a thing until now. I guess I'm a little slow.

Hey, by the way, have you heard of these new "tube" sites? I hear you can get a lot of free porn on them. :upsidedow

Yeah, check the program bundel that came with your scanner... Theres probably some OCR stuff in with it.

What he said.. My newest scanner came w/ some also.. Works great and way better then having to retype a doc you do not have a ecopy of.

Google Docs:thumbsup

Google "pdf to txt" to find tools converting graphics (scans) to text files.

free porn on a tube? those Brits are crazy :Oh crap

I usually use an iPhone app called OCRnow for that, snap a good pic of it, few minutes later you have the pdf with the text in your mailbox.

Also works with traditional uploads of scanned pages from what I remember.

site is: http://ocrnow.com

Edit: And yeah it uses the Abby Fine Reader engine.

Solution: ----> http://www.free-ocr.com/

Thanks all. Trying some of these to see what works best.

Appreciate the help.