Can I turn an essay into text by scanning it?

[Polybius]

Long story short, I can't find the .txt (or .doc) file on my computer of an essay I wrote about 25 years ago. However, I have the actual physical paper in mint condition.

I need it in text form. Now, I know I could do it the hard way and manually type it out, but that would take several hours. Is there any way that I could scan it and turn it into text? If yes what free programs can do this for me?

[iemanja]

1. Is it type written or hand written?

I think there are programs that will convert type to a Word Processing format, but, from what I've been told, I don't think it's possible with script.

[Polybius]

3. It's typed

It was written on my computer in .txt or .doc format. I save everything but can't find the file.

[Tetrachloride]

2. OCR is the term. Optical Character Recognition

https://www.cisdem.com/resource/best-free-ocr-software.html

I have never done any myself

[Polybius]

4. Thanks!

I'll check them out!

[TexasTowelie]

8. I used OCR about twenty or so years ago.

I recommend using the maximum resolution possible (dots per square inch, aka dpi) when scanning.

I definitely recommend proofreading the essay afterwards since OCR is not 100% reliable, and it is also variable by the font used in the original document. There will also be likely be more errors if the original uses a smaller font size compared to a larger font size.

[crud]

5. I use acrobat pro

You can open up a jpg in acrobat and then open the edit menu and it converts the scanned text to editable text.

[Baked Potato]

6. If you have an IPhone or iPad, there is a scanner in NOTES.

I haven’t tried it, but there is a tutorial here:

https://www.imore.com/how-use-document-scanner-iphone-and-ipad

And

https://www.engineeringonline.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2020/03/Turning-Paper-Documents-into-a-Single-PDF.pdf

[yonder]

7. I've used OCR a few times. It works, but proofing it against the original is important

I've ALWAYS found glitches in the resulting file. An "S" might turn into a "5", a "K" might turn into an "R", etc.

Many printers have that feature.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. You might actually want to retype it.

Try what others have selected, but if it doesn't scan properly, do retype. Not fun, I know.

Earlier today I was absolutely unable to do a copy and paste of a very brief text I needed, and as annoying as it was, I simply retyped it into the document it needed to be in. So you have my sympathy.

[Earth-shine]

10. If you have speech recognition on your computer, you can read and speak the words, and the

typing will be done for you.

[MerryHolidays]

12. Absolutely! I am mega-impressed with MS Word's speech recognition

It is amazingly accurate.

[CloudWatcher]

11. OCR software is pretty standard with all modern scanners

You might not have a scanner, but I'll bet you know someone that does. Their scanner very
likely came with some OCR software that will save you time in retyping it.

It's rarely perfect, but the fact that it was typed is a big plus.

If you really don't have any friends with scanners, if you can get images (pictures) of each
page you can upload them to any number of free OCR web sites. Just google 'free ocr' and
try and decide which one(s) to try

After you review the results (and maybe feed to a spell checker), I'd suggest also sending
the results to a text-to-speech program. I find that listening to text can catch errors and
typos that my visual system just doesn't see easily.

Good luck!

[Lucid Dreamer]

13. My experience

Note that this may be a bit dated and there may have been great advances in OCR systems.

Back in 1990-91 I agreed to publish a family history book for my wife's side.

Source was over 100 pages of typewritten text.

I had a New MacIntosh with OCR, word-processing and desktop publishing software.

My original thought was to scan docs to WP and make a few corrections as necessary. Then export the WP doc to the publishing suite.

I scanned in the first 10 pages, but the error rate was high enough that I found it more convenient to type the doc myself. At that time I could do over 75 wpm. Also, it allowed me to edit on the fly for spelling, grammar and clarity. Net time saver for me.

OCR scanning today may well be more accurate. Today. If it is just one doc you might want to make contacts to people who use the technology on a production basis and ask for help. Local colleges may be able to help if you have any contacts.

I don't know how long your essay is. I know I could hire secretarial services to do this for me quickly.

Those are just a few suggestions. If you find another solution that really works well for you, please let us know.

[NullTuples]

14. Lists of free OCR software

https://tesseract-ocr.github.io/tessdoc/User-Projects-%E2%80%93-3rdParty.html (list of Google-tesseract OCR engine powered programs)

I've used this tesseract-powered utility: http://www.paperfile.net

https://www.onenote.com/download (microsoft onenote, which has a pretty advanced OCR engine)

Windows 10 & above have the same OCR engine *built in* and use it in the PhotoScan app.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/scan-a-document-or-picture-fa6a57d5-1f31-24e5-2a78-2fb0bb2c2d15