There are two possible image sources: from image files and from a scanner. There are two main types of scanners: flatbed or sheetfed. A scanner may have a built-in or added Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), which makes it easier to scan multi-page documents. The images from scanned documents can be input directly into OmniPage or may be saved with the scanner’s own software to an image file, which OmniPage can later open.

Input from image files

You can create image files from your own scanner, or receive them by e-mail or as fax files. OmniPage 16 can open a wide range of image file types. Select Load Files in the Get Pages drop-down list. Files are specified in the Load Files dialog box. This appears when you start automatic processing. In manual processing, click the Get Page button or use the Process menu. The lower part of the dialog box provides advanced settings, and can be shown or hidden.

The minimum width or height for an image file is 16 by 16 pixels; the maximum is 8400 pixels (71cm or 28 inches at the resolution 201 to 600 dpi). See online Help for pixel limits.

In OmniPage Professional 16, files can also be imported from FTP locations, Microsoft SharePoint, SharePoint 2003, 2007, or ODMA sources.

Input from digital camera

You can bring digital camera photos of documents for recognition into OmniPage. First, make sure that your device driver is installed properly. Then connect the camera and download images. Click Load Digital Camera Files in the Get Page drop-down list. If you use this, 3D Deskew, resolution enhancement and straightening text lines are automatically performed on images. You can also do manual 3D deskewing, see the section “Image Enhancement tools” later in this Chapter.

To acquire digital camera photos containing text from Direct OCR or PaperPort, mark the Load as digital camera image checkbox. The above mentioned automatic enhancements will apply. For tips and advice on working with digital camera images see the How-to-Guides.

Input from scanner

You must have a functioning, supported scanner correctly installed with OmniPage 16. You have a choice of scanning modes. In making your choice, there are two main considerations:

Which type of output do you want in your export document?
Which mode will yield best OCR accuracy?

Scan black and white

Select this to scan in black-and-white. Black-and-white images can be scanned and handled quicker than others and occupy less disk space.

Scan grayscale

Select this to use grayscale scanning. For best OCR accuracy, use this for pages with varying or low contrast (not much difference between light and dark) and with text on colored or shaded backgrounds.

Scan color

Select this to scan in color. This will function only with color scanners. Choose this if you want colored graphics, texts or backgrounds in the output document. For OCR accuracy, it offers no more benefit than grayscale scanning, but will require much more time, memory resources and disk space.

Brightness and contrast

Good brightness and contrast settings play an important role in OCR accuracy. Set these in the Scanner panel of the Options dialog box or in your scanner’s interface. After loading an image, check its appearance. If characters are thick and touching, lighten the brightness. If characters are thin and broken, darken it. Then rescan the page.

If your scanning results are still not satisfactory, open the scanned image in the Image Enhancement window to edit it using a range of different tools.

Scanning with an ADF

The best way to scan multi-page documents is with an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF). Simply load pages in the correct order into the ADF. You can scan double-sided documents with an ADF. A duplex scanner will manage this automatically.

Scanning without an ADF

Using OmniPage’s scanner interface, you can scan multi-page documents efficiently from a flatbed scanner, even without an ADF. Select Automatically scan pages in the Scanner panel of the Options dialog box, and define a pause value in seconds. Then the scanner will make scanning passes automatically, pausing between each scan by the defined number of seconds, giving you time to place the next page.

Document to document conversion

In OmniPage Professional 16 you can open not only image files, but also documents created in wordprocessing and similar applications. Supported file types include .doc, .xls, .ppt, .rtf, .wpd and others. Click the Load Files button in the OmniPage Toolbox or select the Load Files command under Get Page, in the File menu. In the Load Files dialog box, choose Documents.

When you are finished, you can choose from a wide variety of document file types for saving.