Hi Trevor,
We recently undertook a project to digitise and create machine readable versions of a series of Royal Academy of Arts exhibition catalogues (1870-1913). We tried a few OCR packages and also found that Abbyy Finereader http://finereader.abbyy.com/ gave good results. However, the resulting text files were still very inaccurate and required an enormous amount of manual tidying up to make them accurate enough for consistent searching. Also, Abbyy is not cheap and the costs will mount up if you need a separate Abbyy licence for each of your volunteers.
The results of our digitisation project can be seen here:
http://www.racollection.org.uk/ixbin/indexplus?_IXACTION_=file&_IXFILE_=templates/pages/exhibition_list.html
Regards,
Adam.
Adam Waterton
Head of Library Services
Royal Academy of Arts
Burlington House
Piccadilly
London
W1V 0DS
T: 020 7300 5740 | F: 020 7300 5765 | E: [log in to unmask]
The Royal Academy of Arts Collection Online: www.racollection.org.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Howell, Alan
Sent: 09 August 2011 10:09
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Software for digitising magazines
Hi Trevor
I have used Abbey Finereader for some projects at home and found it to be very effective at this sort of thing.
Kind regards
Alan Howell
Guernsey Museums & Galleries
SSDDI +44 (0) 1481 709736
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of REYNOLDS, Trevor
Sent: 06 August 2011 09:49
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Software for digitising magazines
Dear all
A volunteer run charity I'm involved with wants to digitise the back issues of its periodicals.
What they want to end up with is PDF/A format documents with a scanned image of each page with searchable text underneath the image. Many of the early issues have poor quality text and any OCRed text will probably need heavy editing.
Can you recommend software which will enable this to be done? They are intending to split the work between a number of volunteers who will be working at home on their own computers so low cost, easy to use solutions would be welcome!
Trevor Reynolds
Collections Registrar, English Heritage
37 Tanner Row, York, YO1 6WP tel: 01904 601905
Portico: your gateway to information on sites in the National Heritage Collection; have a look and tell us what you think. http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/professional/archives-and-collections/portico/
****************************************************************
website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup
[un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/
****************************************************************
This e-mail (including attachments) may contain sensitive and/or privileged information. If received in error, its use by you is not authorised and may be unlawful. Please notify the sender and delete all copies immediately. E-mails may be subject to error, interference and virus and no liability is accepted for loss or damage however it arises and whether direct or indirect. Service of legal proceedings by e-mail may not be accepted.
E-mails may be monitored for compliance purposes. All documents are subject to copyright.
****************************************************************
website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup
[un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/
****************************************************************
The Royal Academy of Arts is a registered charity under Registered Charity Number 1125383 and is also registered as a company limited by guarantee in England and Wales under Company Number 6298947. Registered office: Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BD.
****************************************************************
website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup
[un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/
****************************************************************
|