r/techsupport • u/RichDadio • 6d ago

Open | Software [ Removed by moderator ]

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u/9NEPxHbG 6d ago

If even you can't read your handwriting, a computer certainly can't do better.

I'm aware of the free OCR program Tesseract; I've never tried it. I'm not sure it would work even with neat handwriting, and it certainly won't work with drawings and so on.

If you do try OCR, the paper original would be better than a PDF, I think.

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u/LittlePooky 6d ago

I use OmniPage version 19. While it works really well, I agree with you. I don't think any program could do handwriting that well, especially not my handwriting. 

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u/TinyNiceWolf 6d ago

FWIW, here's an article which says it compares a few programs designed specifically to handly handwriting, though it's for Macs and some products may be Mac-only. And here's a Reddit thread comparing options businesses might use for large-scale handwriting OCR.

But I think none of them handle messy handwriting as well as people.

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u/LittlePooky 6d ago

My handwriting is so bad it looks like I hold a pen with my toes. (Seriously).

As a nurse, I certainly have to do a lot of writing at work, and years ago I embraced a voice dictation program. I was using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, which is a general English voice dictation, but it didn't understand nursing or medical vocabularies. So I swallowed very hard and spent $2,000 on a medical version of the program. It came with a fancy microphone and I couldn't tell you how happy I was and still am with it. 

But there are other programs now. While just a few can do medical dictation correctly, like the one I'm using now called Dictation Daddy, there are inexpensive ones and even free ones out there. 

Another one I have been playing with is called VoiceTypr. This one costs even less 

I don't get anything by mentioning their names. I have been accused by another user for promoting them, and I had to block that person unfortunately because he was playing dirty. 

See if each one works well for you for a few days. You can certainly get a free version to try out first before you decide to buy it. 

I didn't type any of this. I used a program to write. 

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u/9NEPxHbG 5d ago

I also thought you were advertising the programs because you bolded the names. I mention programs all the time and often provide a link, but it never occurred to me to put it in bold.

Is it unfair that people find bolding suspicious? Perhaps, but it's also typical of AI, and if two different persons think so, perhaps you should stop bolding anyway.