TextGrabber - This week I added a new software tool to my genealogy toolbox: ABBYY TextGrabber. Actually, this program uses a process that I have been using for several years: take a picture of documents and then later convert the image to text by use of OCR (optical character recognition). The one difference is that ABBYY TextGrabber provides the software to "package" everything together in one easy-to-use program. If you already own an Apple iPhone, you might want to add this low-cost program to your toolbox as well.
ABBYY TextGrabber allows you to take a picture of any text, such as genealogy information found in a book, and it then converts that text to computer-readable format by using OCR (optical character recognition). The decoded text can then be sent by email or copied by iTunes to a Windows or Macintosh or Chromebook computer where you vcan easily copy-and-paste the information into any genealogy program, word processor, or most any other program.
Using ABBYY TextGrabber can save you a LOT of manual data entry on a keyboard!
NOTE: Newsletter readers report that ABBYY TextGrabber only works with the iPhone 4 or 3GS, not the iPod Touch or the iPad. I didn't have an iPod Touch available to me so I tested ABBYY TextGrabber with an iPhone 4. I like it so well that I am keeping the program.
The Process
Actually, through a series of iPhones I have owned, I have been using the camera in my iPhone to take pictures of documents for years. The built-in camera works rather well at snapping pictures of all sorts of documents although it doesn't have the high resolution of a dedicated desktop scanner. Still, the resolution of the latest iPhone 4 is sufficient for most of my purposes.
For example, click on the image to the right to see a picture I took with my iPhone 4 from the History and Genealogy of the Eastman Family of America published in 1901 by Guy S. Rix. If you click on the small image to the right, you will soon see a full-size copy of the image that I snapped with the iPhone camera. Note that it is rather good resolution at 1,936 by 2,592 pixels, resulting in a 1.8 megabyte file.
The picture looks good to the human eye. It does have a few characteristics, however, that are typical of genealogy books. First, the camera was not perfectly vertical in relationship to the text when I snapped the picture, so the text is slightly slanted. This is typical of using a handheld camera to take pictures of pages in a book. It is almost impossible to align a handheld camera exactly vertically in relation to the book. That won't bother the human eye, but might make a big difference when converting the text by OCR technology. (I'll write more about OCR a bit later in this article.)
Next, there are "extra marks" on the page. Someone wrote a checkmark above and to the left of the word "John" in the first paragraph of text, just below the page title. Also look at the ninth line (counting the title as a line). Note the smudge in front of the letter "e" in "each of his children."
Next, in the middle of the page, someone crossed out the month of "Aug." and wrote in "Oct."
Another problem is the font sizes. At least this page has all the text in a serif font, but the superscript numbers at the end of each child's name will be difficult for a computer to interpret easily.
All in all, this picture looks rather "clean" although I do see one extra speck above the word "MASS." in the page title. Many pictures of genealogy books often have a lot more speckles, smudges, and dots.
Like it? Share with your friends!
If you got an error while installing Themes, Software or Games, please, read FAQ.
Supported operating systems:
Apple iOS 10.x (iPhone), Apple iOS 12.x (iPhone), Apple iOS 4.0.x (iPhone), Apple iOS 4.2.x (iPhone), Apple iOS 4.3.x (iPhone), Apple iOS 5.0 (iPhone), Apple iOS 6.0 (iPhone), Apple iOS 7.0 (iPhone), Apple iOS 8.x (iPhone), Apple iOS 9.x (iPhone), Apple iPhone OS 3.1.x
Similar Software:
ABBYY ISBN Reader ABBYY ISBN Reader - Found an interesting book? Buy it with ABBYY ISBN Reader! Just snap a book’s ISBN with your iPhone or iPad, get book details, and buy it on amazon.com in a few clicks. Don’t waste your time searching the Internet, taking the risk of mistyping, loosing or forgetting it
ABBYY LinkGrabber ABBYY LinkGrabber - With ABBYY LinkGrabber, you can open printed Web addresses on your iPhone.
With LinkGrabber you will no longer need to enter Web addresses by hand. All you need to do is take a photo of a printed Web address and select an action-open it in your iPhone browser, save it, or forward it by e-mail or SMS
Save2PDF for iPhone Save2PDF for iPhone - Save2PDF is a useful tool for creating PDF files on your iPhone. The app allows you to convert Office and iWork files, photos, contacts, web pages, email attachments and other file types to the PDF format.
In addition, Save2PDF can merge different document types into a single PDF
PrintBureau PrintBureau - PrintBureau is a complete printing solution for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. It allows you to view, store and print emails, documents, attachments, photos, contacts, calendars and web pages from your iOS device.
PrintBureau can print directly to most WiFi printers, and to all printers connected to your Mac or PC
TurboScan TurboScan turns your iPhone into a multipage scanner for documents, receipts, whiteboards, business cards, etc. With TurboScan, you can quickly scan your documents and store, print, or email them as multipage PDFs or JPEG files
PrintCentral Pro for iPhone/iPod Touch PrintCentral Pro for iPhone/iPod Touch - PrintCentral Pro is a powerful printing solution for iPhone and iPod touch. It allows you to print emails, contacts, web pages, email attachments, maps, photos, text messages, and much more
PDF Expert PDF Expert is a professional PDF viewer for iPhone and iPod Touch. Saving PDF email attachments, full text search, support for password protected documents, navigation through embedded PDF bookmarks, handling large PDF files are the most essential functions to mention.
With PDF Expert you can:
SAVE EMAIL ATTACHMENTS. INCLUDING PASSWORD PROTECTED ONES
Roambi - Visualizer Roambi interactive mobile dashboards let you tap, turn and swipe to analyze and share your company’s latest information on any iPhone or iPad – keeping you connected to your business, anytime and anywhere
ESIGNControl ESIGNControl is a DocuSign transaction remote control that lets users control the documents they send for signature via iPhone. It lets users see the status of the documents they sent, who has signed, who has not, and even allows them to correct and resent if there is a problem. You can also download and view the documents that you sent right on your iPhone
iSilo iSilo - Document reader for viewing document files in iSilo, Palm Doc, and plain text format. The latest version adds the ability to view additional file types. Additional image file types include .jpg, .png, .gif, .tif, among others. Additional document file types include .pdf, .htm, Word (.doc, .docx), Excel (.xls, .xlsx), and PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx)
Other Software by developer «ABBYY Software House»:
ABBYY Tutor ABBYY Tutor 2.0 is a vocabulary building application for Windows Mobile Pocket PC.
ABBYY Tutor 2.0 is ideal for learning a language in an educational establishment or for working, traveling and leisure purposes. Learning efficiency is based on a testing system allowing knowledge assessing at any stage, and on special revising exercises
ABBYY Lingvo x3 Mobile Spanish - Russian Dictionary ABBYY Lingvo x3 Mobile Spanish - Russian Dictionary- a dictionary, which allows you to translate words and word combinations quickly and accurately in a moment. It includes many colloquial, dialectal, and argot words. ABBYY Lingvo x3 Mobile is an ideal companion for work, travel or study, wherever you are
ABBYY FotoTranslate Russian - French ABBYY FotoTranslate is an innovative solution for travel and business trips.
Translate words with a single button push, wherever you are - you don't need to type unknown foreign words by hand.
The program automatically recognizes the words taken on the camera of your smartphone and shows the translation
ABBYY FotoTranslate Polish -Ukrainian ABBYY FotoTranslate is an innovative solution for travel and business trips.
Translate words with a single button push, wherever you are - you don't need to type unknown foreign words by hand.
The program automatically recognizes the words taken on the camera of your smartphone and shows the translation
ABBYY FotoTranslate French-Russian ABBYY FotoTranslate French-Russian is an innovative solution for travel and business trips.
Translate words with a single button push, wherever you are - you don't need to type unknown foreign words by hand.
The program automatically recognizes the words taken on the camera of your smartphone and shows the translation
ABBYY Tutor (1 year) ABBYY Tutor 2.0 is a vocabulary building application for Windows Mobile Pocket PC.
ABBYY Tutor 2.0 is ideal for learning a language in an educational establishment or for working, traveling and leisure purposes. Learning efficiency is based on a testing system allowing knowledge assessing at any stage, and on special revising exercises
ABBYY Lingvo x3 Mobile English - Polish Dictionary ABBYY Lingvo x3 Mobile English - Polish Dictionary is a dictionary, which allows you to translate words and word combinations quickly and accurately in a moment. It is an ideal companion for work, travel or study, wherever you are
ABBYY PhoneGrabber ABBYY PhoneGrabber allows you to avoid tiresome manual data entry when transferring telephone numbers to your smartphone. Take a photo of a telephone number in any printed text or load previously made photos from your smartphone’s memory. Once the data are recognized, you can immediately dial this number up with your iPhone
ABBYY Lingvo x3 Mobile German - Russian Dictionary ABBYY Lingvo x3 Mobile German - Russian Dictionary- is a dictionary, which allows you to translate words and word combinations quickly and accurately in a moment. This is the most comprehensive dictionary of its kind published in the second half of the 20th century. ABBYY Lingvo x3 Mobile is an ideal companion for work, travel or study, wherever you are
ABBYY FotoTranslate French - English ABBYY FotoTranslate French - English is an innovative solution for travel and business trips.
Translate words with a single button push, wherever you are - you don't need to type unknown foreign words by hand.
The program automatically recognizes the words taken on the camera of your smartphone and shows the translation