Re: Can't OCR old faded typewriter text

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes

>The original documents were typed on white paper with a typewriter and
>probably a worn ribbon.  The characters are light, but quite legible
>and very easy to read by eyesight... more of a gray.
>
>But Scan Manager pro will not define the characters. I end up with
>about 80% errors. I can't reduce brightness finely enough before it
>completely blacks out the preview.
[...]

Adjusting the brightness (or contrast) is not really what you need. Most
image editing programs have better tools. Mine has a "modify color maps"
tool which is very flexible (but I doubt that's a standard name). You'll
probably find a "gamma correction" tool which should work when set to a
low value. You are basically trying to 'stretch' the pale colors to use
the whole range from white to black. Or you could use a threshold tool
to convert it to black and white. Or tell your scanner to scan in black
and white (not grey levels) and use its controls to set the threshold.
Any of these should work better than photocopying, but if you have reams
to OCR, it might be worth experimenting.

Graham
-- 
Graham Jones, author of SharpEye Music Reader
http://www.visiv.co.uk
21e Balnakeil, Durness, Lairg, Sutherland, IV27 4PT, Scotland, UK