ABBYY Launches First OCR Product to Deliver Accurate Recognition of Logical Document Structure

FineReader® 9.0 Delivers First OCR Technology Intelligent Enough to Retain Key Formatting Elements within Native Formatting Fields

ABBYY, a leading provider of document recognition, data capture and linguistic technologies, today announced version 9.0 of the ABBYY FineReader document and PDF conversion software. Based on a breakthrough new recognition platform with Adaptive Document Recognition Technology (ADRT™), FineReader 9.0 is the first optical character recognition (OCR) product intelligent enough to automatically deliver editable files in native document formatting. The new version offers up to 35 percent* accuracy improvements, particularly with documents containing tables and images from digital cameras. FineReader 9.0 combines enhanced accuracy in the reproduction of document layouts with new tools, extended document format support, and an innovative interface redesign to provide increased user productivity with less steps and effort spent on OCR tasks than ever before.

ABBYY FineReader provides comprehensive and easy-to-use document conversion capabilities which allow users to readily transform document images and PDF files into editable and searchable electronic files. A cost-effective and time-saving alternative to manually retyping documents, FineReader delivers precision accuracy in converting almost any type of document, including tables and spreadsheets, magazine articles, contracts, and even faxes.

ABBYY’s unique ADRT recognizes not just the text and basic layout, but the logical structure of a document across multiple pages, producing an improvement in layout retention by up to 32 percent*. Because it understands a document as a whole, FineReader is very intelligent in saving and exporting OCR results. It can determine how certain formatting elements should be treated when sending to Microsoft® Word and Microsoft Excel®. As a result, the headers and footers, page numbering, footnotes, fonts and styles of the original are retained. For example, footnotes linked with corresponding text on the page, image captions, graphics and tables are automatically grouped with the appropriate object type. Headers and footers can be directly edited or even removed using the Microsoft Word header and footer tools. Text flows are maintained across multiple pages. The new 9.0 recognition platform also recognizes and retains a variety of additional formatting elements including line numbering, signatures, and stamps found in legal and other documents.

“Through each step of OCR development, we have been able to reproduce an increasing amount of document parts automatically – from individual letters and text, to formatting elements such as columns and tables,” explained Sergey Popov, Chief Product Manager at ABBYY. “Now with the ABBYY ADRT, we can analyze not just the separate formatting elements of a single page, but also the formatting and logical text flow across a document with multiple pages, and recreate the document as a logical whole.”

FineReader 9.0 continues to follow the ABBYY tradition of delivering the highest accuracy. New algorithms automatically identify tables and recognize table layouts with or without distinct cell divisions, enabling table structures to be reproduced with the greatest accuracy. FineReader was the first recognition product to introduce digital camera OCR capabilities. This version includes ABBYY’s advanced, second-generation technology innovations in camera image OCR, providing precision pre-processing controls, automatic resolution calculation and correction and curved text handling.

FineReader is also the only solution with support for multilingual document recognition and OCR capabilities in 179 languages. Now enhancing its multilingual capabilities, FineReader applies new algorithms to automatically detect the native language of a document to save extra steps in processing and eliminate accuracy problems linked to attempting recognition in the wrong language.

ABBYY has revised its acclaimed user-interface to offer a more efficient, streamlined interface enabling a significant productivity increase. The all-new Results-Driven user interface maximizes usability and efficiency through straightforward user guidance, anticipation of a user’s logical next step, and a 40 percent* reduction in the number of required mouse clicks to accomplish a task. In addition, it provides key tools at the top UI level and eliminates the number of submenus required to access key functions. The interface is customizable, so that users who want to go directly from their starting point (open or scan) to completed results can do so with minimal mouse clicks. Users who prefer more control over the OCR process can access special customization windows for enhancing results. New characteristics of the Results-Driven interface include:

• Enhanced Task Automation — Execute key functions with QuickTasks™ such as “Scan to Microsoft Word” and “Convert Photo to Microsoft Word” directly.
• Interactive QuickTips™ — provides interactive recognition feedback plus actionable buttons (such as re-scan, when image resolution is too low) to guide users through recommended correction steps for improving recognition results.
• SingleView Dialogue Boxes for Quick Access — Preview a document and select pages with an easy to use QuickPreview™, and access key image enhancement functions such as “crop” and “de-skew” with a new Edit Image window.
• Versatile and Powerful Text Editor — a new QuickEditor™ allows a live preview of the document and expanded editing capabilities and preferences prior to export.

FineReader is optimized for use with today’s newest dual- and quad-core processors for time savings of up to 3.2 times* compared to single-core processors. It includes support for automated and background processing. It is Microsoft Windows Vista® certified and supports Microsoft Office 2007. The program also provides support for Windows XP 64 Bit Edition. With direct support for Microsoft Office 2007, FineReader 9.0 can save files in the new DOCX and XLSX file formats enabling direct file transfer with SharePoint® and other applications. For long term archiving and searchability, it now also supports the output of documents in the PDF/A file format. FineReader 9.0 also supports input of images in XPS (XML Paper Specification), a new format for document viewing and storage developed by Microsoft.

ABBYY FineReader 9.0 is a powerful solution for local networks and enterprises, and is available in the following editions:

• FineReader Professional Edition – designed for individuals and organizations working in a desktop environment.
• FineReader Corporate Edition – for small to mid-sized organizations or functioning work groups that work in a local area network. This edition offers concurrent licensing and is the only product on the market that includes direct support for distributed document processing over a network. Collaborative work with shared dictionaries and watched “Hot Folders” can be set up and monitored for scheduling of OCR processing.
• FineReader Site License Edition – for enterprises requiring large volumes of users and installation via automated roll-out scenarios.

For more information about ABBYY and its products and availability, please visit the company’s website at https://www.abbyy.com/.

* Numbers quoted are based on internal ABBYY testing.