To save electronic copies of the original "paper" documents, they are subjected to scanning. Sometimes duplicates obtained in this way are recognized using OCR applications combined with scanning programs, and sometimes they are saved as a picture. Often, after scanning, some changes are made to the original document that need to be displayed in the electronic copy. There are several ways to edit a "scan".

Instruction

If scanning was carried out in text recognition mode, then the contents of the received 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 scanned and converted document into text format opens in a separate window with an editing menu, the functionality of which is similar to the functions of a conventional text editor. If the scanned and recognized text was saved to a file, then you can change it with a standard text editor. Use for this, for example, Microsoft Word - this word processor is able to read most of the formats used to save texts by 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, which is installed by default with the Windows operating system, will suffice. Open the file containing the image of the scanned text in it, select the section of the image that should be replaced, and fill it with a color that matches the background of the document. Then choose the size, color and font to match the text and print a new piece over the filled area. However, in most cases, text replacement requires more careful work with the image - copying background areas and placing copies on top of the text in several layers, deformation of 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, such as Adobe Photoshop, is much more suitable for this work.

There is another way to replace a fragment of the original 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 graphic editor. The scanned part of the text then needs to be superimposed on the document being edited using any graphic editor - such an operation is provided in almost all applications of this kind.

It is convenient and safe to store scanned documents on your computer's hard drive or external media. However, how do you make changes to pages that are usually rendered as images? We will need special programs, the installation and management of which we will discuss below.

How to scan a document before editing?

In order to successfully manipulate the file in the future, it is important to correctly convert it to the “picture” format, as well as take into account a few simple but useful nuances in the process itself. For this:

• Smooth out any creases and folds so that they do not appear on the scan and do not lead to difficulties in recognizing letters.
• For ease of reference, save the file as a PDF, JPG, or TIFF.
• The PDF document can be opened and edited by Adobe Acrobat (or any other program designed for similar purposes).
• Go to the website of the scanner company, or look for a proprietary program on the supplied disk (often well-known brands have their own applications for modifying scanned pages).
• To use the file later in MS Office 2003 or 2007, install the Microsoft Office Document Scanning utility. It converts the scanned file automatically, translating it directly into text (the program does not work with more recent versions of Office).
• It is recommended to scan in black and white rather than in color to make text analysis easier.
• TIFF format is best used for OCR converters, that is, programs that produce optical recognition.

How to edit a scanned document - working with OCR utilities

The principle of the Optical Character Recognition method is the reading of characters available on paper, their subsequent comparison with elements from their own database. Thus, the solid image is converted into editable text. Vivid examples of programs that cope with this task are Adobe Acrobat and Evernote. To make corrections to an existing scan, simply open it with one of these applications, the entire subsequent process will happen automatically. When the program finishes recognition, it will prompt the user to save the document in one of the available formats.

How to edit a scanned PDF document

If the scanned document is saved as a PDF file, we can easily edit it in Acrobat DC. For this:

• open the menu “Tools” -> “Edit PDF”;
• the program starts the editing process, showing a menu of tips in the upper right corner;
• by clicking on it and selecting “Options”, you can specify the recognition language;
• to make changes, just click on any line of the document;
• a document opened for editing via OCR is accompanied by a special settings panel located on the right side of the screen;
• in the "Settings" section, in addition to the language, it is also convenient to choose the displayed font, mark the pages that need to be edited (all or one at a time).

There is an affordable alternative to installed converter programs on the worldwide web. These are online OCRs that will easily convert the resulting image into any text format. For example, the site pdfonline.com will allow you to turn a scanned PDF document into a regular MS Word file in a few minutes.

The creation of book publications and magazines in digital format for reading is possible thanks to PDF editors. Such software turns paper pages into a PDF file. The following software products allow you to complete the task. Using the latest technologies, the programs will help you get a scanned image with subsequent color correction or display text from a sheet and edit it.

Adobe's product for creating PDF documents. There are three versions of the program, which differ to a certain extent. For example, converting to a format for working with , creating a digital signature and sharing with other users is in the premium version, but not in the standard one. All tools are grouped in specific menu headings, and the interface itself is seasoned and minimalistic. Directly in the workspace, you can convert PDF to DOCX and XLSX, as well as save web pages as a PDF object. Thanks to all this, building your own portfolio and customizing ready-made work templates will not be a problem.

ABBYY FineReader

One of the most famous text recognition applications that allows you to save it as a PDF document. The program recognizes content in PNG, JPG, PCX, DJVU, and the digitization itself occurs immediately after opening the file. Here you can edit the document and save it in popular formats, in addition, XLSX tables are supported. Printers for printing and scanners for working with papers and their subsequent digitization are connected directly from the FineReader workspace. The software is universal and allows you to fully process a file from a paper sheet to a digital version.

Scan Corrector A4

A simple program for correcting scanned sheets and images. The options provide changes to brightness, contrast, and hue. Features include storing up to ten sequentially entered images without saving them on the computer. In the work area, the borders of the A4 format are adjusted in order to completely scan the paper sheet. The Russian-language interface of the program will be easy to understand for inexperienced users. The software is not installed on the system, which allows you to use it as a portable version.

So, the software in question makes it possible to effectively digitize a photo for storage on a PC or change the color tone, and scanning text will allow you to convert it from paper to electronic format. Thus, software products will be useful in a variety of working moments.

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 rest.

But in order to calmly and carelessly do something pleasant, you first need to do your job with high quality. Very often, if documents need to be entered into a register or database, a large amount of information has to be reprinted. Such a process quite often annoys users. To simplify this process, you can use a scanner and an 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. As a result of the scanner operation, an image of the page of the original document is obtained. 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 work.

What can be done with the scanned document

The document obtained as a result of scanning can be easily managed by editing the entire text or only its fragment. For this purpose, a special program for editing scanned documents is usually used. The main function of such utilities is to recognize the scanned image and translate it into a text fragment. In the future, it can be edited and processed. Today you can find a lot of similar programs and applications. Each of them has its own characteristics and nuances. Let's take a 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 pictures of any quality. The program also implements the ability to recognize multi-level documents containing figures, tables and other details. The functionality of the program allows you to set the language in the process of text recognition.

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

The program has a convenient and intuitive interface. No special skills are required to use this software product. It is this accessibility of ABBYY FineReader that has 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 eventually 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. FineReader is especially convenient in the PDF recognition process, 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 OCR on PDF files.

PDFill PDF Tools

This program is specifically designed to work with PDF files. 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 content of PDF files and convert them into images. In addition, the program allows you to create lists, work with embedded images, align text and perform 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 as well. One of them is the program interface. It cannot be called convenient. But this shortcoming is more than compensated by a 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 with which you can edit PDF files is Free PDF Editor. The program has a simple and intuitive interface, supported by many common operating systems. The only downside of Free PDF Editor is that the scan 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 talking 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, she also has her shortcomings. The program does not work well with handwritten text.

Of course, the functionality of the program indicates the possibility of operations with handwritten text, but the quality of the result is, to put it mildly, doubtful. If we talk about the appearance of the program, then here OCR may well compete with 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 that has made OCR popular among users is its self-learning capability. The program is equipped with an adaptive recognition system, which allows you to better and better perform 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 carried out 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 process of text recognition will be carried out according to a completely different principle. After all, it is necessary not only to recognize the picture, but also to bring it to an acceptable form. For example, if you need to scan a diagram from a textbook, then the scan will show traces of ink from other pages. In order to get rid of these shortcomings, you can use special graphic editors.

You can use for this purpose such an advanced tool as Photoshop. 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 the scanned document.

When working with paper documents, manuscripts or books, it often becomes necessary to convert everything into an 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 the scanned document into Word format? In order not to have 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 both edit the scanned document in part, and completely convert it into a convenient Word format. And you can do it in just a few minutes.

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

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 appreciated 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 translate 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 possibilities are still limited.

To get a full-fledged text document, you should upload the file to the program through a special form (click "open" or "upload"). To improve accuracy, you can specify a range of pages and select a specific area with text. After a while, a preliminary result will appear. After that, it remains to save the .doc file, so that later you can figure out how to edit the scanned document using MS Word.