Thanks, Aman. This concurs with my own feelings, but it's always nice to get conformation from another source. We're going to be fundraising for £750 to buy Kerzweil 1000 and a flatbed scanner. Cheers Barry -----Original Message----- From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Aman Singer Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2015 8:45 PM To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] Re: OCR Hi Barry, At the moment, Kurzweil 1000 is undoubtedly the best package available for both blind and partially sighted users of differing skill levels. It uses the ABBYY FineReader recognition engine, which is the gold-standard. If you were buying it for sighted users, or for blind people who loved screen readers, I would go for ABBYY's own latest version as being better at strictly the recognition task and costing less, but for different users, Kurzweil allows use for the simplest things through the keypad and the most complicated recognition through menus. It's also filled with Keyboard shortcuts. I am saddened, and honestly a bit shocked, to say that the stand-alone machines are actually worse than the computer-based solutions. I have tried many of them and seen text from the ones I haven't tried. I expected better results but got worse. Obviously, a scanner is going to give you better results than a camera. If I were to disregard costs, I would get one of the faster flatbed scanners and a document camera like the HoverCam or Sceye. Both work with Kurzweil. HTH. Aman On 2/22/15, Barry Hill <barry.hill3@xxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi all > > > > Apologies for cross posting. > > > > Disregarding the cost, which system would people recommend for general OCR > text to speech for letters and books? Would a dedicated stand-alone system > be better than a flatbed scanner and OCR software, for example? This is > going to be for a blind society drop-in centre used by both blind and > partially sighted people. We have a dedicated PC. > > > > Cheers > > > > Barry > > > > > > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > http://www.avast.com > ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq