SEEK free util to convert GIF/JPG to plain text [OT?]

[Franklin]

WinXP Pro/SP2

Is there a freeware utility which will convert text visible in the
image itself of a picture filesuch as GIF, JPG, BMP, etc into plain
text which can then be used in a text editor?

(I am *not* referring to extracting metadata such as EXIF.)

When I ran 'Simple OCR' it replied it could not convert my JPG image
(which showed approx eight short lines of text) into to plain text.
Are there other freeware utilities which might be able to do this?

As an idea, is it possible to get one of the deskop search
applicationss like Google, Yahoo or Copernic to use some optional
image-text extraction feature to do this? I believe they are now
avialable but the problem is that I do NOT want a search utility to
extract the *ALL* the text of *ALL* the JPGs on my hard drive!!! I
want to extract from just ONE jpeg and I guess this may be hard or
impossible to set up in a Desktop Searcher.

Any help welcome.

 

[chrlz]

I don't know Simple OCR, but that *is* what OCR is designed to do..
But many OCR programs assume a black and white image and for the text
to be close to horizontal or vertical, and not too 'fancy'. Some don't
like JPG's, some require TIF or BMP images, some will refuse anything
not in black and white mode..

Keep hunting. OCR programs are bundled with most scanners, or have
free 'limited edition' versions. Plus they are sometimes given away on
PC magazine cover CD's.

 

[CSM1]

WinXP Pro/SP2

Is there a freeware utility which will convert text visible in the
image itself of a picture filesuch as GIF, JPG, BMP, etc into plain
text which can then be used in a text editor?

(I am *not* referring to extracting metadata such as EXIF.)

When I ran 'Simple OCR' it replied it could not convert my JPG image
(which showed approx eight short lines of text) into to plain text.
Are there other freeware utilities which might be able to do this?

As an idea, is it possible to get one of the deskop search
applicationss like Google, Yahoo or Copernic to use some optional
image-text extraction feature to do this? I believe they are now
avialable but the problem is that I do NOT want a search utility to
extract the *ALL* the text of *ALL* the JPGs on my hard drive!!! I
want to extract from just ONE jpeg and I guess this may be hard or
impossible to set up in a Desktop Searcher.

Any help welcome.

OCR does work well on jpg, you need TIFF for OCR programs.

To convert a image to editable text requires a program called OCR or Optical
Character Recognition.

There are several programs available from the free simple OCR to the better
programs such as OmniPage Pro 15, and Abbyy FineReader.

Also some scanners have a bundled version of OCR included. The bundled
version is usually not as good as one of the current commercial versions.

http://www.simpleocr.com/
http://www.nuance.com/omnipage/
http://www.abbyy.com/finereader_ocr/

 

[Bruce Lewis]

WinXP Pro/SP2

Is there a freeware utility which will convert text visible in the
image itself of a picture filesuch as GIF, JPG, BMP, etc into plain
text which can then be used in a text editor?

http://jocr.sourceforge.net/

A link on there mentions a Windows version. I haven't tried it myself.

Followup to rec.photo.digital

 

[schrodinger's cat]

WinXP Pro/SP2

Is there a freeware utility which will convert text visible in the
image itself of a picture filesuch as GIF, JPG, BMP, etc into plain
text which can then be used in a text editor?

(I am *not* referring to extracting metadata such as EXIF.)

When I ran 'Simple OCR' it replied it could not convert my JPG image
(which showed approx eight short lines of text) into to plain text.
Are there other freeware utilities which might be able to do this?

If you have a recent version of Microsoft Office with Office Tools
installed, you could use MS Photo Editor (or another graphics program of
your choice) to save your jpg as a tif file, then open the tif in
Microsoft Office Document Imaging, which has an OCR function built in.
Just curious, though - if you only need 8 short lines of text wouldn't
it be a lot simpler to just re-type them into a text document?