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I read with interest the tale about Martin Hennessy-Smith’s efforts to get an OCR package working on a Mac in icon in today's Sydney Morning Herald


I have been using Macs for years.


OCR and scanning in general is probably one of the greatest weaknesses in Mac OS X.
It is because most Hardware manufacturers spend their resources developing for Windows and leave nothing for Mac OS X, and probably Linux as well.


My advice, if you wish to send this on to Martin.


1. The only decent OCR software for the Mac is OmniPage Pro from ScanSoft.

2. City Software has it but it is terribly expensive at AU$850.

3. OmniPage Pro for OS X is an updated version of the previous software and can be annoying to use. It also relies on the Scanner manufacturer having twain drivers that will work in OS X. I ditched my Firewire Umax scanner for this reason. Umax is no longer able to support OS X.

4. In frustration I downloaded and tried a piece of shareware called VueScan.

VueScan is to Mac OS X scanning what the Rosetta stone is to Egyptology and encryption. VueScan recognises lots, and lots and lots of scanners. No need for troublesome twain drivers or partially working manufacturers software.

What is more VueScan has basic OCR recognition built in. I have tried it and been very, very impressed. It does not have the bells and whistle as OmniPage Pro but the cost is incomparable. What is more I really like the way it outputs scanned text as just plain old text with no formatting. You can then drop it into Word and do what you want with it.

The developer of VueScan, Ed Hamrick will respond promptly to your queries, and even modifies the product to fix any fault you find or in response to suggestions.

How much is VueScan? US$49.95 for a one year subscription.

Go to http://www.hamrick.com for more details.



I would not be without it.