[blindlaw] New Scanning Option

Steve Jacobson steve.jacobson at visi.com
Sun Jan 6 16:13:28 CST 2008 

Please explain this further because I think we're talking about two different things in this thread.  The ability to create 
PDF documents that contains both the original image and the text has been around for a while.  I do not know of 
Acrobat supported it or not but it was an option at least in OmniPage when used to create PDF's.  

I just tried to read a document that was only an image a week ago or so with Acrobat Reader 8.1.1.  There was no 
option to extract text from the document that I was aware of, but I was able to convert the document to text using an 
OmniPage option so I know the text was recognizable.  This would be very handy if Adobe built in such a feature, 
though.  Would you describe where you were prompted for the conversion option?  Are you certain you were not 
hearing the "document being processed" message that accompanies the normal extraction of text?  Maybe I missed 
something.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

On Sun, 6 Jan 2008 11:15:07 -0800, Russell J. Thomas, Jr. wrote:

>The version you want is Adobe 8.1. you can download it from the Adobe
>website. 

>The advantage is that this program will convert certain PDF documents to
>text, documents which cannot be converted by the use of other programs.  The
>disadvantage is that the document must be saved as a text file, thereby
>losing the formatting of the original document.



>-----Original Message-----
>From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>Behalf Of Ford, Tim (CDPH-OLS)
>Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2008 11:01 AM
>To: NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List
>Subject: Re: [blindlaw] New Scanning Option

>I have not experienced what you describe on my free Adobe Reader
>software, which is version 8 something.  If the material is image only,
>then JAWS indicates that, but Adobe does not give me the option of
>converting to text.  Perhaps there is some setting in the Adobe Reader
>software that needs to be turned on in order to get the prompt you
>describe?  This would be wonderful news.  While the virtual Freedom
>Import printer works well enough, converting through Openbook, this new
>approach sounds even better, and especially for large documents, where
>converting through Openbook can take awhile.  So if you happen to know
>how to activate this feature, please let me know.

>Tim Ford
> 

>-----Original Message-----
>From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org]
>On Behalf Of AZNOR99 at aol.com
>Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2008 10:53 AM
>To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
>Subject: Re: [blindlaw] New Scanning Option

>Tim and All,
> 
>I noticed this a few months ago.  The newer versions of Adobe (8.0 and
>above) now have a feature that recognizes screen reading software, in my
>experience Jaws 8.0 and beyond.  Once I download an image file, Adobe
>recognizes that there is text and asks if I want it to try to convert
>the file  to OCR-enabled.  Once I do, it very quickly processes the
>image and  converts it.  I've done this with briefs, receipts, and even
>exhibits.  In fact, I've not used my virtual printer once since I
>upgraded  to the new version of Adobe.
> 
>This means that you don't necessarily need Adobe Professional on any
>machine.  The standard free addition works wonderfully.  It's made my
>work much easier and saved me a great deal of time.
> 
>Regards,
>Ronza
> 
> 
> 
>In a message dated 1/6/2008 12:46:02 P.M. Central Standard Time,
>Tim.Ford at cdph.ca.gov writes:

>I  recently discovered, quite by accident, a new scanning option that
>may be  of interest.

>My office recently installed Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional,  Version
>8.0.0, on the computer with the scanner that I have been using to
>create PDF versions of briefs an other material I need to send to
>others electronically.  I had my assistant scan in a brief that I was
>to file electronically.  

>I pulled up the results, just   to print it and have my assistant make
>sure all the pages were there.   To my surprise, JAWS started
>automatically reading the document.  I  had my assistant check, and on
>the screen, and what we printed, was the  typical image only format,
>with my scrawled signature and all.

>so  apparently what this new version of Adobe has is the capacity to add
>a  quite good optical character recognition of the text.  The
>recognition quality was quite good, better than what I am used to with
>OpenBook.  

>So the advantages of this is that:

>1.  You  have a PDF file with the actual intact original, so if there
>are any scan  errors to figure out, you have the original there for a
>sighted person to  review.  

>2.  You also have the actual original that you can  print and/or send
>electronically to others.  If the person you send it  to does not use a
>screen reading program, then they will not notice any  difference
>between what they see and any other Adobe PDF image only  scan.  

>3.  If the recipient has a screen reader installed,  then Adobe knows
>that, and automatically turns on the converted text  imbedded
>information.

>Oh yes, and there is yet another neat  aspect.  Although the Adobe text
>conversion itself is not something  you can edit, all you do is select
>whatever text you want, including using  control plus a to select all,
>and paste that in to a Word document.   That gives you everything that
>the Adobe text recognition picked  up.

>For my Adobe reader software, I have the typical free reader  version,
>so you do not need to have the Adobe Professional version  installed
>except on the machine that has the scanner on it.

>I do not  know the cost of the Adobe Professional version software.
>However, this is  the typical software product that most offices now
>use, and is certainly  something that would be affordable by most any
>office of any  size.


>Sincerely,
>Tim  Ford
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