I just used this string:

Need OCR (optical character recognition) program for ubuntu 10.04

and Google found some...

Thank you for your input on this subject. I now have more information
than when I first started.


I need to figure out where to take this.

I've tried many OCR packages on Ubuntu and have to say that none of
them are a patch on Abbyy Fine Reader which unfortunately only works
in Windows so it's one of the programs I have to run using WinXP in
Virtual Box, though I might give it another shot on 'Play on Linux'
just to see if it can work since Wine is now up to version 1.4. Many
years ago I obtained a free key for version 5.0 through a UK magazine
and whilst Abbyy is up to version 11 now they still don't support
Linux, aren't cheap ( but if there was a Linux version I think they'd
clean up the market in OCR software for it !! ), and the older one
works just fine :-)

Other than trying to get a copy of Abby Fine Reader and using WinXP in
Virtual Box I feel you are going to be disappointed with any OCR
program in terms of accuracy and spelling check etc. Some of the OCR
efforts have been so bad and needing editing it would be as easy just
copy typing the document in the first place !!

Don't get me wrong, I use Ubuntu all the time but there are some tasks
that I need to do that work much better in Windows and OCR is one of
them :-( If I could get anything remotely close to Abbyy in Ubuntu I
would use it !! Currently I have to do the scans in Ubuntu then open
in Abbyy Fine Reader to OCR then back to Ubuntu to carry on working
with them. Not a huge hassle with VBox and shared folders across the
two but it would be nice to have it all in Ubuntu :-)

Windows users would say the same thing. AFR is the best. However, it all
depends on your needs. Some people do not need the best. They only need
what works best for them. It also depends on your bank book. Some people
cannot afford the best. Especially if you only use it for a short time.

Know what you mean about pricing for AFR and if it wasn't for the free
licence I have I doubt I'd have been able to justify the cost when
only needed intermittently ( once a month I will OCR a dozen or so
scans for the village magazine I co-edit ). I did fire off an e-mail
to Abbyy about a Linux version and got a reply back they do one but
it's CLI only. The good thing is that the free trial is good for 100
scans and according to the documentation it can be re-installed as
many times as you wish, but whether that resets the counter is to be
seen. I've downloaded it and am waiting for the licence key from Abbyy
to test it out :-)

Have also replied to support to say that 149 Euros for a CLI program
is not really on !!

Anyway, for those interested go here ...

http://www.ocr4linux.com/en:start

If you want to deploy OCR recognition, RasterEdge OCR add-on is the best choice. Flexible OCR recognition, detecting and processing options are provided for a better performance.See
www.rasteredge.com/how-to/csharp-imaging/ocr-sdk/