OmniPage 2.1 and friends           OCR/graphics
Caere Shows New OmniPage Add-ons
 
Microbytes Daily News Service
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Caere Corporation, maker of OCR (optical character recognition)
software, showed at Comdex a set of software add-on products for
OmniPage, the company's flagship OCR product. The new add-ons,
which were announced last week, include an automatic spell
checker, a program that compares an original document with a
revised document, one for converting bit-mapped images into
PostScript, and a program that recognizes dot-matrix text.
Caere also announced a new version of OmniPage, version 2.1,
which can read documents saved in the compressed Tagged-Image
File Format (TIFF). OmniPage 2.1 includes enhancements that
enable the new add-ons to work, Caere said.
 
The spell checker, OmniSpell, features a 100,000-word American
English dictionary (other languages are available), and is
designed to check and correct the spelling of scanned text
before you transfer it to your Macintosh or DOS word processing
program. According to Caere, what makes OmniSpell unique is
its ability to identify typical OCR errors. For example, if
your scanned document shows the non-word "datecl", OmniSpell
will suggest "dated" as a replacement word, since the letter
"d" is sometimes interpreted as "cl" by OCR software.
 
OmniProof is an editing tool for anyone who must rewrite the
same document a number of times. The program matches two
document files and identifies the changes you've made from one
revision to the next, such as insertions, deletions, and
rearranged paragraphs. OmniProof includes a "comparison
window," that lets you view two documents at a time and edit
their contents.
 
With OmniTrace, OmniPage 2.1 will recognize bit-mapped (raster)
images from scanners or disk files as lines and curves (vector
images). It then will convert the images into PostScript format
for use in Mac or DOS graphics and page-layout applications.
 
Finally, OmniDraft allows OmniPage 2.1 to accurately recognize
draft-mode text produced on nine-pin, dot-matrix printers,
including text ranging in size from 8 to 72 points, that in
single- or multiple-column format, or that in portrait or
landscape orientation, the company said.
 
All of Caere's new OCR products are available in both MS-DOS
and Macintosh II and SE/30 formats. Caere officials said
they're "working on" a version of OmniPage for SCO's PC-Unix
operating system, but did not announce a release date. OmniPage
2.1 is available now and is free to all OmniPage 2.0 owners.
 
Price: OmniProof and OmniTrace, $150 each; OmniSpell and
OmniDraft $100 each.
 
Contact: Caere Corporation, 100 Cooper Ct., Los Gatos, CA
95030, (408) 395-7000.
 
                              --- Jeff Bertolucci
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
