This article provides a brief description of several scanning programs. They will help you digitize documents or create electronic copies of paper photographs. To speed up the transfer of text information from paper to a file, the utilities are equipped with a text recognition function.
Canon MF Toolbox
MF Toolbox - a program for the Canon scanner , which comes with the company's devices. It can also be downloaded on the official resource of the developer. The application is absolutely free. To scan documents and photos just click a couple of buttons. The resulting images can be edited in the program without the use of third-party editors. I must say that the ability to change scans in software is very scarce.
The utility is compatible only with Canon devices - this is its main drawback. Products of competitors are often universal and have great capabilities.
MF Toobox can only be recommended to inexperienced users who need to scan a small number of pages. The program allows you to save data in a PDF container or graphic image formats. After scanning, the utility can export files to a graphical editor or send a document by e-mail using Outlook. The program for the Canon scanner can work in copy mode. The digitized image can immediately be sent to print.
Vuescan
VueScan is an extremely powerful software that supports more than 3,000 scanner models. Drivers are already built into the utility. Because of this, the application is recommended for owners of devices whose support the manufacturer has stopped. For modern scanners, the program will also be useful, as it has more functionality than in the utilities that come with the equipment.
With VueScan, you can scan photos, documents, films. Results are saved in TXT, PDF, TIFF, JPG formats. After creating a snapshot, you can immediately print the document without using any other software.
Operating modes
The program for the scanner provides the user with a choice of two operating modes: "Detailed" and "Master". After starting the latter, a step-by-step assistant will appear on the screen. The user will be able to choose what the scan is performed for - printing to a printer or saving to a local disk. After that, you need to specify the source - a specific device or directory into which created documents will be moved.
To adjust the quality in the "Master" mode, the user is not offered a choice of resolution and compression ratio. Instead, the scanner program will ask you to indicate what the digitization is for: saving the document in the archive, sending it to print, exporting to the mail client. At the last stage, VueScan displays an approximate view of the document after scanning, allows you to crop or rotate the image to the desired angle.
The step-by-step assistant mode is suitable for inexperienced users or when you need to quickly take a picture of a document. For people who prefer to control all parameters manually, the "Detailed" mode is better. It is presented in two versions. The first will allow you to change only the basic settings, the second - absolutely everything.
Additional features
The program for the scanner allows you to eliminate light graininess, change the color rendering settings, increase sharpness, and select automatic cropping settings. After configuring the application once, you can create a profile. The next time you scan, you don’t have to change the settings manually, it’s enough to apply the settings you already saved. This approach is rational if it is necessary to make a large number of similar scans.
The program for the VueScan scanner can recognize text. Thanks to this, there is no need for additional software. Based on the recognized text, you can create a document that can be searched by any popular editor (for example, notepad or Word). I must say that this function only works correctly with good quality images. It should be considered complementary to the utility, not the main one.
VueScan is distributed in two versions: standard and professional. There is no recognition function in the home. The professional supports ICC profiles, has the ability to calibrate colors, and also saves images in RAW format.
Cuneiform
CuneiForm is a text recognition program from a scanner . The developer claims more than 20 supported languages. The font system is independent. The utility retains the full structure of the document: tables, illustrations, footnotes - after recognition, everything will remain in its place. If the application is not able to correctly identify all the elements of the page, the user will be able to do independent markup.
The developers also claim that their creation is capable of self-learning. However, the principles of this action are not disclosed by them. Vocabulary control is designed to reduce the time required for editing text. After recognition, the utility will automatically highlight all words with grammatical errors. The user can expand the built-in dictionary by adding entries to it.
This program is also suitable for working with previously saved images . A computer scanner is not required. For the utility, graphic files with a resolution of more than 200 DPI are suitable.