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From: npn@cbnewsl.att.com (nils-peter.nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: OCR as a way to measure printer quality
Keywords: PostScript, OCR, HP
Message-ID: <1991Mar22.224813.7086@cbnewsl.att.com>
Date: 22 Mar 91 22:48:13 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 26


At the Seybold Seminar, Adobe had an exhibit that included
several new printers with their RIP. One was especially
impressive-- the HP Series IIISi. Apparently, HP has a
proprietary board that does spot size and place adjustment.
The result  is a 300dpi printer that yields quality more
like 400 dpi.  I picked up a sample "Stock Report" page.
I also picked up a sample of the new Kodak 7016PS output,
which looked more like conventional 300 dpi. How could one
quantify the differences?
I ran both samples through an OCR board (this one from
Calera) and diff'ed the files.  Embarrassingly, the text was
*not* identical; apparently, Adobe had two different people
key in identical text, and they made errors. In addition,
one used FrameMaker and one PageMaker, so the hyphenation
was different.
I went through by hand and found:
	6 errors in 1728 characters on HP
	10 errors in 1716 characters on Kodak
(the errors are all in the OCR, *not* in the printer).

As a free plug to HP, whom we have never forgiven for
foisting PCL on the world, the IIISi, at 15ppm for
under $6,000 and outstanding quality, is absolutely
worth considering. If Adobe could supply a *standard*
page, we could automate the quality check.