Is there any cheap reading edges around that work good? Or are they even being made any more? I know computers have come a long way towards integrating such functions in, but I like the idea of dedicated machines, as they're smaller, and usually do their function real well as that's all they must do. Figured $5000 is pretty expensive, and maybe facing the possibility of only having my laptop to use means no numpad, and the need to add it on and take more space, where the dedicated all-in-one device could fit away some where and I could get it out and plug it in when I need it. At 01:29 PM 12/10/01 -0600, you wrote: > Since this topic has come up, I have a few questions. Do >any of the free OCR packages run in command line mode? > > I don't mind that they may not automatically turn the >image for you to take care of upside down pages, etc, but how >does the quality of the conversion compare with something like >OsCar or Reading Edge? I have found those products to do a >pretty fair job on standard printed pages or typewritten >material. If I could duplicate that functionality in Linux, I >would be happy as the OsCar system I use here at work is >approaching 9 years old and the HP scanner will probably crash >and burn one of these days. > > It is my understanding that you do the OCR under UNIX by >scanning a Jpeg image with the scanner and then feed that image >in to the OCR program where you get a text file or standard >output if text can be decoded. > > If the output indicates differently when tables or >columns are involved, one should be able to write filters in C or >perl or even awk to read them more easily. > >Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK >OSU Center for Computing and Information Services Network Operations Group > > > >_______________________________________________ > >Blinux-list@redhat.com >https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > >