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ABBYY Announces FineReader Engine 6.0 and Customers of the New SDK

August 27, 2002
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Toolkit provides enhanced development environment for VARs, SIs, and developers integrating ABBYY’s OCR, ICR and barcode recognition technologies into software and hardware document & imaging management systems

ABBYY® USA, a leading developer of document recognition and linguistic technologies, today announced the availability of ABBYY FineReader® Engine 6.0, a new software development toolkit for integrating ABBYY’s FineReader OCR (machine print), ICR (handprint), and barcode recognition technologies into Windows applications. Providing higher accuracy and improved OCR functionality than ever before, FineReader Engine 6.0 enables hardware and software developers, consultants, VARs, and system integrators to leverage ABBYY’s advanced recognition technologies and integrate them into document and content management, data capture, and form processing applications. 

Thanks to IPA Technology and Multilevel Document Analysis, FineReader has an unprecedented recognition accuracy. Also FineReader maintains higher quality of accuracy on multi-lingual documents than any other OCR software*.

ABBYY USA also announced today FineReader 6.0 Scripting Edition, automation API tools designed to customize and integrate the FineReader 6.0 software into Windows applications for mid- to high-volume production.  A complete description is provided in a separate press-release.

Customers of FineReader Engine 6.0

FineReader Engine has already been purchased by many customers, including Kurzweil Educational Systems, Inc., a leading developer of reading technology for the visually impaired and people with reading difficulties.  Kurzweil is using FineReader Engine to incorporate ABBYY recognition technologies into new versions of its software, Kurzweil 1000 and Kurzweil 3000.

“We have used FineReader in previous versions because it is clearly the most accurate engine.  Accuracy is critical to our blind users and students who are listening to the text using computer- generated speech – mistakes can be confusing and distracting,” said Stephen Baum, vice president of research and development at Kurzweil.  “We are particularly impressed with the new engine’s ability to automatically adjust text contrast and filter background noise and texture.  This is very helpful since our customers tend to input a wide variety of documents, from old books and newspaper clippings to faxes and magazine articles.  FineReader provides accurate results – even on low quality pages.”

Robust Development Tools for a Variety of Applications

FineReader Engine 6.0 provides developers with the tools to access the core functionality, or “engine,” of ABBYY’s award-winning FineReader applications.  With the new SDK, developers have the flexibility to either integrate FineReader recognition technology into existing applications or build powerful new applications from scratch.  FineReader Engine includes a set of Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs) as well as open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that fully conform to the Component Object Model (COM) standard and can be easily used by C/C++, VisualBasic, Visual Studio.NET, Delphi, or any other development tools supporting COM components. 

FineReader Engine’s 6.0 high level of accuracy, robust functionality, and versatile technology make it ideal for developing a wide range of applications that include:

  • Enterprise content and document management
  • OCR/ICR-related products for high-volume production environments and consumer markets
  • Processing of machine-readable forms (questionnaires, feedback forms, etc.)
  • Fax processing
  • Internet and intranet content creation and publishing
  • Reading systems that scan documents, perform OCR, and read text aloud using a synthetic voice

Advanced Features of ABBYY FineReader Engine 6.0

With each new development cycle, ABBYY enhances the FineReader core technology with the new capabilities and features, designed to meet the needs of various customers. Customers of FineReader 6.0 benefit\t from the following advancements:

1. New recognition modules for ICR (handprint recognition).
New improvements in ICR include recognition of joined-up characters and the separation of field content from borders and frames (such as on forms).

2. New recognition modules for barcodes.
Enhancements in barcode recognition are designed to increase recognition of barcodes of poor printing or scanning quality in 2.5-5 times, compared to the previous version.

3. New Fast Mode recognition.
In document processing applications dealing with large amounts of data, speed and efficiency is more crucial than extremely high accuracy.  To meet this need, Fast Mode Recognition that increases recognition by up to 2 to 2.5 times.

4. New “Intelligent Background Filtering” (IBF) for OCR (machine-print recognition)
IBF uses a dynamic threshold and texture filtering to improve recognition on difficult to read document such as newsprint, color documents, faxes, and copies and remove additional background noise.

5. New OCR-A, OCR-B and MICR (E13B) font support.
Recognizes characters frequently used by banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions.

6. New capabilities for saving in RTF and PDF formats.
RTF: Ability to save non-rectangular pictures, to recreate bulleting and numbering.
PDF: Image-only save option is added. Multi-lingual PDF files are supported.

For a full description of FineReader 6.0 Engine, go to www.abbyy.com  

Complete Set of Development Tools

For users who want to customize an existing FineReader OCR application, ABBYY offers FineReader 6.0 Scripting Edition, which provides automation API tools.  This solution enables system integrators, VARs, service bureaus or corporate IT developers to customize or modify ABBYY’s FineReader 6.0 OCR software and integrate the solution into Windows applications by writing a few lines of code - eliminating the need to develop applications from scratch.

Pricing and Availability

FineReader Engine 6.0 is now available.  ABBYY USA offers flexible pricing options that allow developers to select the type of licensing model that is best suited to their product and sales strategy.  A free trial version is also available. For additional product information visit the company’s website at https://www.abbyy.com/ or contact the company at (510) 226-6717.

About ABBYY USA 

ABBYY USA is a member of the ABBYY Software House Group, a world leader in document recognition and linguistic technologies.  ABBYY specializes in the development of software for optical character recognition (OCR), intelligent character recognition (ICR), linguistics, semantics, and electronic lexicography.  Leading products from ABBYY include the FineReader line of OCR, ICR and barcode recognition software, and FineReader development tools.  Companies that license ABBYY OCR/ICR technologies include Acer, AISoft, BancTec, C-Technologies, Cardiff, Cobra Technologies, Freedom Scientific, Hewlett-Packard, Kurzweil, Legato Systems, Lexmark, Microtek, Mustek, NewSoft, Notable Solutions, Panasonic, Samsung Electronics, Siemens Nixdorf, Sumitomo Electric Systems, Toshiba, and UMAX.

ABBYY and FineReader names and logos are registered trademarks of ABBYY Software House. Other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies and are hereby recognized.

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