Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!nf0a+ From: nf0a+@andrew.cmu.edu (Nathan W. Fullerton) Newsgroups: comp.sys.tandy Subject: Re: Are Complete PC Hand-held Scanner & TANDY 1000SL compatible? Message-ID: Date: 10 Dec 89 22:24:27 GMT References: <3028@cbnewsl.ATT.COM> Distribution: usa Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 17 In-Reply-To: <3028@cbnewsl.ATT.COM> I have never actually tried the Complete PC Hand Scanner myself, but I can see so reason why it could not be used with the SL. For a kick I once tried a Datacopy 730GS scanner with the SL and TL and there were no problems at all. The SL is more compatible than the earlier ones (except for the goofy ROM DOS that screws up some copy protection schemes...) so I wouldn't expect any undue troubles. Public domain OCR is very rare (I've never seen any), and even if it did exist it probably wouldn't be very good. OCR at its best is VERY unreliable, and with a hand scanner at 200 DPI you shouldn't get your hopes up for Character Recognition (flatbeds have it hard enough). Hand scanners were designed mainly for low-cost picture-grabbing, not for OCR work. Nathan Fullerton nf0a@andrew.cmu.edu