With some of the later versions of OmniPage or Fine Reader, one can have a sighted person draw a rectangle around screen shots and other blocks of text drawn differently than the rest of the text and have them recognized separately. This presents three problems though: first, the DPI problem Jackie mentions causes a drop in accuracy, second, you need to keep a spare sightie around and, third, it may not put the text in a logical place in your document. As many of these are code samples, the web site for the book often has them online for download and you will find that text you can get from a site will be 100% accurate which makes using code samples easier. After the multi-month effort on the first Drupal book that Jackie, Jim Homme and I had to drag kicking and screaming into an acceptable state for BSO download, I think that OCR software may still be a generation away from handling documents with lots of insets, screen shots, epigrams and other finery that makes visual presentations much more convenient - hopefully, BSO will have contracts in place with publishers to get the clean XML for publisher quality soon enough that we needn't break our ears over forcing such difficult examples into our shoe box. Happy Hacking, cdh PS: I did receive a second book on Drupal 6 which will take some time to get scanned as Susan, my lovely wife of 21 years, and I are headed off to India for a wedding and won't get back to Boston (where I left my scanner) until 11/8. Chris Hofstader CUNY, BSO, ATG, Odds and Ends email: cdh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Blog: http://www.blindconfidential.blogspot.com Skype: BlindChristian phone: 727-896-6393 -----Original Message----- From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jackie McBride Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 11:25 AM To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Reading Embedded ScreenShots of code in Website Articles Unfortunately, even the OCR packages don't normally do a very good job on these damn screenshots. Some come out better than others but they're all far from good. I've had horrible problems in learnin some computer-related stuff cuz of 'em. The problem is that the screenshot resolution is so low (like 72 d p i) & OCR does not do well w/that sort of low res. Also, often they contain additional fine lines, further degrading the print. I often do the optacon thing, which is slow but gets the job done. I understand many don't have that option. On 10/16/08, Ricks Place <OFBGMail@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Thanks Everett: > I have an OCR on my Scanner / Printer and might try that. It messed up some > of the numbers on a print version of my Resume though but as the sports guys > are fond of saying, it is what it is - grin. > Rick USA > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "E.J. Zufelt" <everett@xxxxxxxxx> > To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 10:46 AM > Subject: Re: Reading Embedded ScreenShots of code in Website Articles > > >> Kurzweil, last I checked, was even more. The alternative, one that I use >> periodically, is to print the document and then run it through a scanner >> that comes with OCR software. I have a Fujitsu ScanSnap s500 (not sure on >> >> the model). It was $400 and comes with Abby Finereader. It does 16 >> double sided pages / minute. >> >> HTH, >> Everett >> >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Ricks Place" <OFBGMail@xxxxxxxxx> >> To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> >> Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 11:41 AM >> Subject: Re: Reading Embedded ScreenShots of code in Website Articles >> >> >>> Hi Everett: Just a note, did you see the price of Open Book! over $900! >>> What a rip. >>> There should be a low cost piece of software out there but I've not found >>> >>> it yet. Guess they get big bucks for pattern recognition apps. >>> I will have my sighted friend read it to me and give him a beer, a lot >>> cheaper at least - grin. >>> An OCR for e-text Might be a good project some day. >>> Rick USA >>> ----- Original Message ----- >>> From: "E.J. Zufelt" <everett@xxxxxxxxx> >>> To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> >>> Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 9:21 AM >>> Subject: Re: Reading Embedded ScreenShots of code in Website Articles >>> >>> >>>> Good morning, >>>> >>>> If you have an application like OpenBook or Kurzweil you can print the >>>> article to that application's virtual printer and it should do the OCR >>>> for you. >>>> >>>> HTH, >>>> Everett >>>> >>>> >>>> ----- Original Message ----- >>>> From: "Ricks Place" <OFBGMail@xxxxxxxxx> >>>> To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> >>>> Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 10:04 AM >>>> Subject: Reading Embedded ScreenShots of code in Website Articles >>>> >>>> >>>> Hi: >>>> Reading a Microsoft Article it has figure 1, figure 2 etc as examples of >>>> >>>> code which, of course, does not read with Windoweyes. Are you aware of >>>> any software to reade these items or a handy OCR or something that will >>>> reproduce them in text? >>>> My printer has a OCR but I used it once and it rearranged some numbers, >>>> not good for code of math formulas. >>>> Any ideas? Otherwise I have a sighted person to read me the pictures, or >>>> >>>> screen shots, and I can type them out. This is for a introduction to >>>> Neural Networks project published in the Microsoft Magazine in Vb.net. >>>> Thanks: >>>> Rick USA >>>> __________ >>>> View the list's information and change your settings at >>>> //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind >>>> >>>> >>> >>> __________ >>> View the list's information and change your settings at >>> //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind >>> >>> >> >> __________ >> View the list's information and change your settings at >> //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind >> > > __________ > View the list's information and change your settings at > //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind > > -- Change the world--1 deed at a time Jackie McBride Check out my homepage at: www.abletec.serverheaven.net & please join my fight against breast cancer <http://teamacs.acsevents.org/site/TR?px=1790196&pg=personal&fr_id=3489> __________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 3524 (20081015) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 3524 (20081015) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind