OCR
Posted by jgrohn On 2022/8/23 4:23:48
Most of the documents that are posted in the literature archive are pdf images that someone has scanned. The documents have been very useful, and a big thanks to everyone who has contributed to them. The one thing that I wished I could do is search through the manuals on my computer electronically.
For example, I would like to be able to search all the documents and find any documents including a keyword. Once finding the document I would like to open the file and have it highlight text showing my search word. As an example I have two screenshots searching the word "steering".
I was able to make that work for documents that are most relevant to me by downloading the documents and running them through an OCR (Optical character recognition) converter. The converter reads in a pdf file, and generates a new pdf file, which is just like the original, but includes the text information along with it. The new set of pdf files, is larger than the original, however once the file has been converted, it is searchable on any computer.
In order to do this, I ended up buying a license for Cisdem converter. Even though the OCR might not be perfect, I have been very impressed with how well the search is working on the files. The down side to this is that the resulting pdf files are larger than the originals. For example, the directory "1955-1956 Parts and Accessories List" is 41.5Mb before conversion, and 293.2Mb after the conversion.
So here are some questions. Would other forum users find it useful to be able to search the pdf documents? Should I upload the documents that I have already converted to some shared location? Would it make sense to run the conversion on the whole literature archive? I know there are costs associated with hosting data on the web, any thoughts?
Thanks,
John
Attach file:
SearchFiles.jpg (87.21 KB)
SearchInFile.jpg (292.15 KB)
For example, I would like to be able to search all the documents and find any documents including a keyword. Once finding the document I would like to open the file and have it highlight text showing my search word. As an example I have two screenshots searching the word "steering".
I was able to make that work for documents that are most relevant to me by downloading the documents and running them through an OCR (Optical character recognition) converter. The converter reads in a pdf file, and generates a new pdf file, which is just like the original, but includes the text information along with it. The new set of pdf files, is larger than the original, however once the file has been converted, it is searchable on any computer.
In order to do this, I ended up buying a license for Cisdem converter. Even though the OCR might not be perfect, I have been very impressed with how well the search is working on the files. The down side to this is that the resulting pdf files are larger than the originals. For example, the directory "1955-1956 Parts and Accessories List" is 41.5Mb before conversion, and 293.2Mb after the conversion.
So here are some questions. Would other forum users find it useful to be able to search the pdf documents? Should I upload the documents that I have already converted to some shared location? Would it make sense to run the conversion on the whole literature archive? I know there are costs associated with hosting data on the web, any thoughts?
Thanks,
John
Attach file:
SearchFiles.jpg (87.21 KB)
SearchInFile.jpg (292.15 KB)
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