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ABBYY Releases FineReader 7.0 OCR Software

September 2, 2003

Next Generation Product Line Sets New Standards With 25 % OCR Accuracy Improvements, PDF Recognition, Microsoft Office Word 2003 Support

ABBYY, a leading provider of document recognition and linguistic technologies, today announced the global availability of the new FineReader® 7.0 optical character recognition (OCR) software product line. This new version of ABBYY's award-winning document recognition application improves the process of converting paper documents and PDF files into manageable electronic data by adding an average of 25 percent increased overall recognition accuracy.

ABBYY FineReader 7.0 comes in two editions - FineReader 7.0 Professional Edition, designed for home users and small businesses, and FineReader 7.0 Corporate Edition, developed specifically for network environments.

Based on a complete enhancement to ABBYY's core recognition platform, FineReader 7.0 is designed to make the process of transforming "static" or uneditable files, into information that can be edited, sent, searched, or tabulated. According to Sergey Andreyev, CEO of ABBYY, "Paper documents come back to life, or are 'revived,' when a user can once again work with them - either by making changes to the text, searching for key words and information, sorting them electronically, or storing them in accessible files. With FineReader 7.0 we enhance a user's ability to efficiently share and communicate information with a focus on three core areas: increased accuracy, PDF handling, and integration with the most recent Microsoft Word tools to make the editing process simple."

ABBYY FineReader 7.0 helps users achieve greater productivity through the following new enhancements:

Improved Recognition Accuracy

FineReader 7.0 delivers a 25 percent average accuracy improvement over the previous version, further saving users time and energy spent retyping or checking documents. Accuracy improvements are achieved through: the addition of new structural models for comparing and analyzing characters, and improvements in image-preprocessing, and the addition of new legal and medical dictionaries for the English and German languages. Significant areas of improvement include recognition of text on colored or textured backgrounds.

Improved Layout Retention Accuracy

Because recreating an original document's layout can be even more time consuming than retyping, ABBYY also develops technologies for layout retention. FineReader 7.0 is supported with new algorithms added to its Multilevel Document Analysis (MDA) process. Examples of improvements include recognition of documents with complex spreadsheets and tables (such as those without printed grid lines and tables with color cells) and documents with bullets of different types.

PDF Recognition

ABBYY FineReader 7.0 also delivers significant improvements in PDF handling that include:

  • Increased PDF Recognition Accuracy. Accuracy of PDF files is increased by an average of 45 percent due to new "intelligent PDF recognition," a two-step method for PDF recognition. In the two steps, FineReader recognizes the PDF file and then extracts the PDF text layer to perform a comparison to 'double-check' accuracy. As a result, accuracy is increased. In addition, PDF conversion is not a problem when files include special encoded fonts.
  • Linearized PDF. PDF documents created by FineReader are now saved as "linearized PDFs" that are optimized for Web publishing. The PDF files are structured so that the first page of the PDF file to be displayed in a user's Web browser before the entire file is downloaded from the Web server.
  • Edited PDF. Users can edit recognized PDF files (as well as all recognized documents) in the FineReader's Editor window. With this feature, users will be able to take an existing PDF document, open it in FineReader, make changes, and save it back into any number of PDF formats.

FineReader supports output in any of the four standard PDF file formats (text and pictures only, text over image, text under image, and image only) with additional controls such as whether or not to replace suspect words with images. This gives users six PDF saving options - more PDF formats than any other OCR software. FineReader 7.0 is also the only OCR program that is able to create text over image PDF files, essentially eliminating the pixilated text outcome that often results without this capability. To preserve text and font characteristics, FineReader 7.0 first "paints" the original image, and then carefully layers the recognized text over the image, requiring flawless layout retention in the OCR program. The resulting document will have impeccable layout retention and crisp text, making it ideal for printing, Web publishing and archiving.

XML Output

ABBYY FineReader 7.0 allows users to export recognized document as XML using native Microsoft Word 2003 defined schema, widely anticipated to be an emerging standard for file use. This allows users to take advantage of the XML file format which can be manipulated and searched using any program that can process industry standard XML. In addition, it provides the basis for data reporting, publishing and submitting data to business processes.

New Integration with Microsoft® Office Applications

  • Integration with Microsoft Word 2003. FineReader 7.0 also streamlines the process of recognizing and editing word documents. When exporting documents to Microsoft Word 2003, FineReader automatically opens an embedded view of the original document, allowing users to concurrently edit and view their original documents, thus eliminating the need to toggle between the two applications.
  • Insertion of Recognized Text into MS Word. When working on a document using Microsoft Word, users can launch FineReader 7.0, recognize a document and insert the recognized text into the active document right at the point where the curser is placed. This means that users will be able to collect information from different source documents and eliminate the extra steps of copying to a clip board and pasting to the active document.
  • PowerPoint Support. FineReader recognizes PowerPoint printed slides and handouts as images, and exports to PowerPoint XP and 2003, making it easy for users to update older PowerPoint presentations.

Professional Tools

ABBYY FineReader 7.0 Professional Edition now includes a set of professional tools that were previously only available for corporate users. These specialized tools are powerful utilities that can increase productivity and provide support for certain office applications. They include:

  • Image Splitting Tool for Management of Multi-Image/Element Documents. With FineReader 7.0's new image splitting tool, users can segment a document into several areas and save each area as a separate page. This feature is helpful when recognizing multiple business cards, pages in a book, or PowerPoint handouts.
  • Full-text Search with Morphology Support for 34 languages. By using the search with morphology support tool in FineReader 7.0, users can create mini-databases with full-text search capabilities of any recognized batch. Morphology support allows users to search for words using any iteration of that word's grammatical form. For example, searching for one conjugated form of a verb will find other forms of the verb.
  • Barcode recognition. FineReader Professional Edition supports recognition of barcodes, including PDF-417 2D barcodes.
  • Hyper-Threading Technology Support. When running FineReader 7.0 on computers with Hyper-Threading Technology in background mode, the program will launch as many processes as there are virtual processors, which increases the speed of operation. This technology can greatly increase productivity when recognizing large numbers of documents.
  • Duplex Scanning. When scanning a two-sided document using a duplex scanner, FineReader 7.0 automatically provides separate images for each side of the document.

Corporate Edition for Networks

Building upon the functionality of FineReader 7.0 Professional Edition, ABBYY is announcing a version designed for corporate networks. FineReader 7.0 Corporate Edition includes all of the functionality of FineReader 7.0 Professional Edition with functionality just for offices on a local area network (LAN). Specialized functions include support for networked scanners and Multifunction Peripherals (MFPs), automated network installation, concurrent licence management, and distributed document processing. For further information, see today's press release entitled "ABBYY Ships FineReader 7.0 Corporate Edition."

System Requirements

FineReader 7.0 Professional Edition supports Intel® Pentium®, Celeron®, and Xeon™, and AMD K6, Athlon™, Duron™, or compatible 200MHz or higher processor. Microsoft® Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT® 4.0 with Service Pack 6 or later, Windows Me/98; it requires 64 MB of RAM for Windows XP/2000/NT 4.0, 32 МB of RAM for Windows Me/98, 220 MB of hard-disk space for typical installation and program operation, TWAIN-compliant scanner, digital camera, fax-modem (optional). Super VGA (800x600) or higher-resolution video adapter and a monitor.

Availability

ABBYY FineReader 7.0 Corporate Edition is available now from select retail stores, resellers, and online outlets. A free 15-day Try&Buy software version of ABBYY FineReader 7.0 Professional Edition will be available for download at the http://www.abbyy.com/ Web site. For additional information on resellers carrying FineReader 7.0 Corporate Edition, visit the http://www.abbyy.com/.