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SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — July 27, 2009 — Livescribe Inc. (www.livescribe.com) and Vision Objects announced today the availability of a handwriting—to—text transcription service for Mac users, bringing handwriting—recognition software to a larger community of Pulse smartpen users. Mac users can download a 30—day free trial or buy MyScript for Livescribe online from Vision Objects, an expert in ergonomic, easy—to—use alternatives for text input.
I am looking for a way to recognize handwriting of scanned notes (in PDF format).
It doesn't have to be perfect, and it doesn't have to free, but before paying I would like to try it (even with just a single page).
It doesn't necessarily have to be a native Mac OS X application. I would be OK with an online application, or a Unix application to install or compile. In other words, anything that works somewhat decently would be OK.
I am also not necessarily looking for a perfect result. Even transforming my notes into a searchable PDF with just some of the text recognized would be better than nothing.
![Handwriting recognition applications Handwriting recognition applications](/uploads/1/2/4/8/124891940/363506242.png)
Handwriting to text is best in Notes Plus. Selecting which pages to import is also nice. Being able to see more pages than notability is nice. The search feature is one of the main reasons notability is the best college app, and the file organization is great. Good notes has one feature I love. The app's handwriting OCR (optical character recognition) engine extracts text from paper documents, like letters, school notes, meeting notes, and grocery lists, allowing those who prefer to write. Ink: Handwriting Recognition In the same way that your grandmother turned yesterday’s dinner into today’s sandwich (and tomorrow’s soup), Apple recycled the handwriting technology of its failed Newton handheld and added it to OS X. Evernote does have handwriting recognition, but unfortunately right now it requires JPG format. It cannot handle PDFs. It cannot handle PDFs. So your work-around may be to consider converting PDF - JPG using Preview, etc. And then importing into Evernote for recognition. Best Handwriting Recognition Apps. The following apps can automatically recognize and digitize your handwritten scrawl. Some of the simple apps are free, some operate with integrated keyboards, while others carry in-app purchases or fees, or owe their talents to the MyScript AI handwriting recognition and digital ink management engine.
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8 Answers
If you're fammiliar with any programming language, take a look @ ocrsdk.com, it's a website that lets you upload images through web API and sends you back OCRed data. Here's the documentation on handwriting recognition: http://ocrsdk.com/documentation/quick-start/text-fields/ and here are some codesamples @ github: https://github.com/abbyysdk/ocrsdk.com There's a nice 50 pages free trial without any upfront charges.
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NikolayNikolay
Evernote does have handwriting recognition, but unfortunately right now it requires JPG format. It cannot handle PDFs. Labview softmotion module 2014. So your work-around may be to consider converting PDF -> JPG using Preview, etc. and then importing into Evernote for recognition. Powerdirector free for pc windows 10. FYI, the handwriting recognition in Evernote for JPG is decent, but not nearly OCR-level from my experiences.
Also, this post describes a good workflow to use Evernote to recognize handwritten notes.
ckib16ckib16
![Handwriting Handwriting](/uploads/1/2/4/8/124891940/836254477.jpg)
You could use Evernote for this (Free). Just import all of your PDF's as notes and after some time (you can speed this up by upgrading to a paid account), it will automatically process them and recognize the handwriting. You won't be able to extract the OCR text from the notes, but you can search for it.
Graham Miln30k66 gold badges6161 silver badges9595 bronze badges
SensefulSensefulHandwriting Recognition Macbook
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I realize that you are looking for a Mac OS application, but for the benefit of readers drawn to this topic by the search for handwriting recognition, I'd like to mention MyScript Memo and Notes Plus on iOS. They share a handwriting recognition engine that seems to work very well in my hands. MyScript memo has a free version that anyone with an iOS device can try.
(I also see that you are looking to recognize handwritten notes scanned from paper, which these apps will not do. They recognize handwritten notes written directly on the iOS device.)
AshAsh89211 gold badge66 silver badges1111 bronze badges
Have you checked out Captricity? It's web-based, and they have a mobile app too. They use a combination of computer algorithms and human intelligence, so they do much better with handwriting than any straight OCR software out there. It's pretty fast (on the order of an hour or two for a few dozen or even hundred pages), and while it's not free, there's just a per-page price.
When I tried it, it was free to set up an account (took me about 15 seconds), and I got my first 25 pages free. It looks like they're still giving away the first 25 pages free. I found it really easy to use. I uploaded scans of some forms that were filled in by hand, marked up a template telling Captricity where the data was that I wanted, then uploaded a whole batch of scans. I hear photographs work well too.
Captricity gave me back electronic, machine-readable data. Best thing I've found so far for handwriting, and I've looked a lot.
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Sarah SSarah S
http://www.VelOCRaptor.com/ seems to be an affordable (FREE!) solution for OS X. It has a very simple drag-and-drop user interface. It is based on Google's OCR technology so you can rest assured that it will work properly.
Hope this helps!
sgonzalezsgonzalez
Brainware.. There is no better product on the market, period!
GregGreg
We're looking for long answers that provide some explanation and context. Don't just give a one-line answer; explain why your answer is right, ideally with citations. Answers that don't include explanations may be removed.
Mac Handwriting Recognition
nohillsideMac Handwriting Recognition Template
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