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From: tad@babcock.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu (Tad Alan Davis)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Do ASCII scanners exist?
Message-ID: <1028@babcock.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu>
Date: 27 Nov 90 17:14:04 GMT
References: <49716@bsu-ucs.uucp>
Sender: news@cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu
Lines: 20

From article <49716@bsu-ucs.uucp>, by 00lhramer@bsu-ucs.uucp (Only to fly where angels dare - and the nights she whispers - Ride the wind never coming back again...):
> I'm curious whether there exist scanners on the market that actually
> convert the bitmap information they receive into an ASCII format.

I believe that these type of programs are referred to as OCR programs
(Optical Character Recognizers).  I think that they are generally sold
for particular fonts, though some will first determine the font, then
begin translating.  I am not sure if there are any font independent
ones out there or not, and if there are what their accuracy rate is.

Leslie,

   Please post or e-mail me responses, particularly if you find some
public domain software for OCR.  My e-mail to you bounces.

Thanks

--
					Tad Davis
					Bell Atlantic Knowledge Systems