Document Number 2202 CatchWord Pro For Windows CatchWord Pro for Windows is a powerful Windows-based optical character recognition (OCR) program which allows scanned text to be recognized and used in almost all word processing, database, spreadsheet and desktop publishing applications. It optimizes OCR usage with hand-held scanners and works with flatbed scanners as well. CatchWord Pro, with Omnifont capability, offers ease of use for the beginner, as well as many powerful features designed to increase the productivity of experienced OCR and Windows users. A recent article in PC Magazine (July 1992) about hand-held scanners and OCR lists the standards one should expect from an OCR package which works with a hand-held scanner. These standards are: omnifont recognition, horizontal and vertical scanning, and the ability to merge and decompose text blocks. CatchWord Pro has ALL of these features and more! Currently, more than 90% of information generated resides on paper. More than 150 billion pages of information are generated each year. Research shows that over 55% of the time spent at a keyboard is actually re-keying existing text. With all of this information being reused, there is a large demand for an easy way to get information from paper into the computer. CatchWord Pro is the solution! Anyone who retypes text is a potential user for CatchWord Pro. ScanMan and CatchWord Pro can turn your computer into a data entry expert. And since CatchWord Pro is easy to use and powerful, both beginning and advanced users will find CatchWord Pro the perfect OCR product for them. CatchWord Pro offers the power of text capture, recognition, storage and recall right at your fingertips. Major Features and Benefits Easy to learn and use, but powerful - CatchWord Pro includes a button bar and tool palette for the most frequently used commands. A complete on-line help system which utilizes the Windows 3.1 help engine is available to assist first time users with any questions they may have. A status bar at the bottom of the screen gives the user helpful information. All of these tools make it easy to get CatchWord Pro up and running quickly, and enjoy the increased productivity of OCR software. As the user progresses with OCR, CatchWord Pro offers more sophisticated features which are not found in any other OCR package. Background recognition - Continue working in other applications while CatchWord Pro completes the recognition process. Designed with hand-held scanners in mind - Logitech kept in mind the unique characteristics of hand-held scanning and OCR when designing CatchWord Pro. Special features, such as the deskewing tool, the multiple document interface, page merge, page composition, and the special OCR text editing tools are all meant to make hand-held scanners and OCR software productive and affordable tools for everyone! Other Features and Benefits Omnifont Allows recognition of most printed fonts from 6 to 36 points (including bold, italic, ligatures, kerned characters, underlined,mono and proportional type) and eleven different languages. No software "training" required. Full and multi-page Works with both flatbed and hand-held scanning scanners (TWAIN Compliant). Scan horizontally or vertically with hand-held scanners. The automatic stitching feature combines up to four scans from hand-held scanners into full pages. Clipboard Recognition Scan and recognize from within another application using the clipboard and have recognition functions in the system menu. MDI Multiple Document Interface (MDI) in Windows lets users scan many different text selections and recognize them all at once. Original and recognized text can be compared side-by-side. Reads skewed text CatchWord Pro recognizes slightly skewed text. It also offers a "deskew" feature for extremely skewed text. Auto-page segmentation CatchWord Pro automatically retains text formatting while discarding graphics. You can also use the zoning feature. Export in 21 formats Text filters for exporting to all popular word processing, desktop publishing and spreadsheet applications are provided. Macros Macros for Ami Pro and Word for Windows are provided. Scan directly into these two word processors. Scan in gray scale For hard to read documents, scan in gray scale. CatchWord Pro converts the image to black and white. Special OCR text tools CatchWord Pro includes special OCR text tools for cleaning up documents before exporting. Frequently Asked Questions Can I scan a full page with a hand-held scanner and CatchWord Pro? Yes. CatchWord Pro has an automatic stitching feature that allows you to merge up to four horizontal or vertical scans into a full page. What kind of accuracy can I expect? One can expect over 99% accuracy on typewritten, typeset, laser printed and near-letter quality printed text. Because of omnifont technology, CatchWord Pro automatically recognizes almost all type faces and sizes in eleven languages. Also, remember the accuracy of the OCR software is directly affected by the original document quality and the quality of the scan. First time users of OCR are often frustrated with the accuracy they achieve because they do not understand how OCR works or how to achieve the best results. The following is a list of "tips" that are included with CatchWord Pro which will help you to get the best results from your OCR package: * One of the most important factors in OCR scanning is the contrast setting. CatchWord Pro for Windows prefers a darker setting for most originals. The general rule is to set the contrast at a darker setting for light original text or broken scanned characters, and to set the contrast at a lighter setting for dark original text or scanned characters which touch, are blurred or filled in. Experiment. Some OCR programs prefer a light setting while others work better when the darker setting is used. * Scan straight with a smooth motion at a speed of about 1/2 inch per second. Despite the ongoing improvement in the hardware design of hand-held scanners to facilitate straighter, more accurate scanning, some people may still wish to use a book or other straightedge as a scanning guide. * For full-page scanning, scan the page in two strips with an overlap of 1 inch. Scan both sides straight at the same speed. Be sure to begin and end scanning as close to the same spot on the page as possible. * Depending on your scanner, set the mode switch to either "line art" or "black and white". * The smaller the text, the higher you should set the resolution. Scan 6- to 8-point type at 400 dpi, 9- to 15-point type at 300 dpi, and type larger than 15 point at 200 dpi. * Test before scanning a whole page. Scan a bit of text and adjust the settings until you reach optimal recognition. Three of the most common reasons that an OCR program may misread text: * Unrecognizable fonts or characters. Omnifont technology recognizes standard fonts by comparing text characters to features programmed into the software. The software will not read characters that don't match programmed features. It may also misread similar characters. i.e., "l" (the number) and "l" (the letter). * Original document quality directly affects accuracy. Letters that are faint, touching, or otherwise illegible, may read inaccurately. Newspapers, photocopies and faxes are often poor originals. * Uneven scanning, fast scanning, or pausing in mid-scan may result in skewed, stretched or compressed text. Follow the tips above to avoid this cause of misrecognition. Will CatchWord Pro work with other scanners besides Logitech's ScanMan? Yes. Not only can CatchWord Pro import TIFF, BMP or PCX files, but it will also work with any TWAIN compliant hand-held OR flatbed scanner. TWAIN is an application program interface (API) which allows the easy integration of a wide range of input peripherals with any software application needing the information captured by these devices. TWAIN describes how to interconnect image capture devices, such as hand-held scanner or flatbed scanners, with software applications able to handle the image data format as hand-held scanner or flatbed scanners, with software applications able to handle the image data format that these sources produce, such as CatchWord Pro. Do I have to "train" CatchWord Pro? No. CatchWord Pro uses omnifont technology which allows it to automatically recognize any character by comparing text features to features programmed into the software. For example, a vertical line with a circle attached on the lower right hand side of it is a "b". If the circle is on the other side it is a "d". Trainable types of OCR require the user to teach the software each font and character style of text they want to scan and recognize. What users often find when they begin to use a trainable system is that each individual font and style requires a time-consuming training session. If most documents you will be recognizing use standard fonts, omnifont is the best way to go. Will CatchWord Pro work with my word processor? Yes. CatchWord Pro can export text in 21 different output formats including ASCII and tab delimited (for use with spreadsheets). CatchWord Pro also includes macros for Ami Pro 2.0/3.0 and Word for Windows 2.0, so you can scan directly into these applications. Also, if you use clipboard recognition, you can scan, recognize and paste from the clipboard directly into your applications without even leaving them! How does CatchWord Pro compare against the competition? CatchWord Pro offers not only omnifont technology, but many other features designed especially for hand-held scanners that you will not find in any other hand-held scanner OCR software. CatchWord Pro also takes full advantage of the Windows environment by offering Multiple Document Interface, background recognition, and an on-line help system that uses the Windows 3.1 help engine, all of which make it a powerful desktop tool. It also offers ease of use, special OCR text editing tools, 21 export formats, and clipboard recognition, which make the process of bringing in recognized text to your word processor, spreadsheet or other application as easy as possible.