OCR software suggestions

[Lincon]

Got and Epson scanner and would like to scan some family history documents in which some of the pages include pictures, etc. I have tried OCR software in the past and found usually doesn't work well so I just scanned the page as JPG but would like to scan to PDF.Epson included some including ABBY. Haven't tried ABBYY yet. I do have Readiris 14 from a few years ago but can't figure how to make it work well as pages would require excessive editing. Maybe it's just I need more time working with it. Is there anything that doesn't require a steep learning curve and works well?

thanks

 

[Bighorn]

My scanners [HP laserJet and HP OfficeJet] offer saving as Photo or Document using the Windows Fax and Scan feature in Start, W, Windows Accessories.

 

[Æþel]

It might be best to experiment with different OCR software to find the easiest one for you to use with your particular documents, e.g. scan one page in several formats and qualities and feed it into the software. For example, I found the free Canon IJ Scan? OCR software to be quicker and much more accurate than the ABBYY FineReader version at around 2000. I changed some things in FineReader, but it never worked as well as the freeware Canon software out of the proverbial box.

 

[Bighorn]

IRIS OCR comes with some MFP software. It's been quite awhile since I last used it but it did work, quality of the original is important.

 

[ubuysa]

I use VueScan and have done since the early days of Windows 10. My old flatbed scanner wasn't natively supported by Windows 10 but VueScan would drive it. I've moved on from that flatbed but still use VueScan because it just works. It will save as pdf natively (and do multi-page pdf too) and it can do OCR for English natively. Other languages need a (free) download for OCR (I use the Greek language one and it works pretty well). VueScan isn't free but it's not stupidly expensive either.