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ABBYY Announces Availability in North America of FineReader 6.0 Professional, a New Version of the Award-Winning OCR Software
June 04, 2002
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Beta testers tout improved word accuracy, format retention, and robust capabilities
ABBYY, the technology leader in document recognition and linguistic technologies, today announced the availability in North America of ABBYY FineReader® 6.0 Professional. The new software delivers significant improvements in word accuracy and format retention, new ease-of-use features, added saving options, plus PDF conversion. As a result, FineReader 6.0 Professional is the most advanced OCR software, empowering users to easily convert paper-based documents and scanned images into editable text with superior accuracy.
“Our engineers have developed new algorithms to improve OCR accuracy, plus we’ve added extensive user tools,” said Dean Tang, president and CEO of ABBYY USA. “Our internal tests show that the new version of FineReader is more accurate than any other OCR solution.”
The FineReader OCR engine accurately recognizes and retains the whole document, including pictures, page layout, tables and text – even text color, inverted type, and vertical text. The new version expands these capabilities, adding significant features that improve accuracy and format retention.
A diverse group of participants took part in ABBYY’s beta program – from home users to large businesses. Their feedback was overwhelmingly positive:
“The new version of FineReader is remarkable. I have been testing it for a publishing house specializing in out-of-print books, and the recognition results are very impressive – even when the original is 100 years old with poor quality print, smudges and broken characters,” said Jim Porzak, president of InfoIS, technology consultant for Polyglot, Inc. “Previously we used another OCR product, but FineReader does a better job of filtering noise on the page, giving us more accurate results. Plus, it supports more languages, enabling us to convert foreign text.”
Norman Metzger, a home-based user in Washington, D.C., previously used FineReader 5.0 Pro to convert newsletters for a historical preservation group. As a beta tester for ABBYY, Metzger said, “I can really see the improvements – version 6.0 is cleaner and more accurate. When converting printed newsletters to Microsoft Word, FineReader does an excellent job of retaining the format, especially with font spacing, line length, and wrap-around text.”
FineReader 6.0 Professional includes ABBYY’s newly developed Intelligent Background Filtering technology. This innovative system uses new algorithms to filter background noise and texture, reducing the number of word errors on low-contrast, color and degraded documents – up to 35%.
The new technology employs a dynamic threshold to automatically adjust text contrast on a line-by-line basis and achieve the highest quality of recognition. In addition, the texture filtering system more effectively detects and removes background noise and texture that could interfere with word recognition. Intelligent Background Filtering is particularly helpful for converting newsprint, magazine pages, faxes, copies and text printed on color or textured backgrounds.
When converting documents, FineReader does a superior job of retaining the original format. The challenge often comes when exporting the results to text-based applications. That’s why ABBYY has added new technology to better reproduce the format within Microsoft Word and Excel. These new capabilities include:
FineReader enables users to input most popular image files, including BMP, JPEG, TIFF and others. The OCR results can then be saved in a wide variety of formats, from RTF, DOC and XLS to HTML and PDF. Version 6.0 now expands these options to include:
FineReader provides an extensive set of user-friendly tools for every step of the OCR process. The software enables users to convert paper documents with a single click of the Scan&Read button. Plus, the Scan&Read Assistant guides the OCR process, prompting users to select preferred settings, which can then be saved to automate repetitive projects. FineReader also features background recognition, which enables users to work in another program while running FineReader in the background. And now, the 6.0 version offers many new features that make OCR quicker, easier and more powerful than ever:
FineReader 6.0 Professional requires a minimum Intel® Pentium® 200 MHz processor; Microsoft® Windows® 95, 98, ME, XP, 2000, or NT® Workstation 4.0 (with Service Pack 6 or greater); 64 М B (Windows XP/2000), 32 М B (Windows ME/98/NT 4.0), 16 М B (Windows 95) of RAM, 90 MB of free hard-disk space for minimal program installation, and 70 MB of free hard-disk space for the program operation. FineReader also requires Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher (Internet Explorer 5.5 is included on the CD). Optional: FineReader supports TWAIN-compliant scanners and fax-modems.
ABBYY FineReader 6.0 Professional is now available and can be purchased by visiting ABBYY’s online store: http://www.abbyyusa.com/ or by calling ABBYY’s toll-free number: (877) 328-2229. In addition, the software is available through major retailers and online stores.
The company also offers a 15-day “Try&Buy” version, which can be downloaded for free from ABBYY’s web site, http://www.abbyyusa.com/.
Today ABBYY also announced the availability of FineReader 6.0 Corporate Edition.
