Readiris Pro 7.0

List Price: $99.95 Discount Price: $99.95

Customer Reviews:

Good Value for Home User [Posted on 2003-07-16]
Readiris Pro 7 installed smoothly into Windows XP Home Edition on a Clean Boot, as recommended in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 310353. It interfaces with many, possibly most, common word-processing software. The scanning and interpretation process is quick at the recommended 300 dpi level (my Epson scanner is on a USB 2.0 port.) Initial, out-of-box, accuracy seems to improve by tweaking the contrast and brightness options and hopefully will continue to improve by using the "learn" option of interpreting data which it questions. At Amazon's current price it's a good value for a home user!

disappointed - both in product and their support. [Posted on 2005-08-27]
Waited almost a year to get this product at a sale price.

When I got it, the joy of finally acquiring it very quickly passed.
The first problem occured during setup.
You are asked to choose your scanner "brand" from a drop-down menu list.
They had tons of choices for:
- HP
- Agfa
- Black widow ?

As for the rest of the scanner world:
1 choice for umax
1 for microtek
1 for Niscan
1 for Canon
1 for Silitek

As for VISIONEER; NOTHING! Zilch! Zip! Nada !

Unbelievable!

One of the most marketed scanners in office stores or online, and readiris can't see fit to include even ONE driver choice;
not even a "generic visioneer" choice.

I figured they had at least added a "patch" or such at their website. NOPE!
Nothing over at their website [support section] either.

I have owned like 4 visioneers over the past 6-8 years.
And 1 canon and 1 umax.
The point being, Visioneer is EVERYWHERE !

They might not be the world's BEST scanners, but they are a large part of the "middle-of-the-road" consumer marketplace.

Perhaps IF readiris was some sort of "worldclass" product,
then maybe [a BIG maybe], they could get away with such a "primadonna" sort of attitude.

But common-sense business practice says to "market to the masses". [Anyone that doesn't better have such a whiz-bang product that they are backlogged with orders and customers are beating down their doors. I doubt Readiris has either such situation].

Anyway, the evaluation :

1. driver choices - poor.
After choosing a "twain-generic" type of scanner choice, I was able to scan my test page.

2. OCR ability - The OCR capabilities was one of the lamest I have ever used.

I even chose a different scanner "type" or driver, but no improvement.


As for OCR, I have done better with the "bundled" software that came with any of my scanners. Meaning, those "Limited editions" that the scanner companies include. [not full versions, normally].

3. rating of packages I've personally tested:

I have used a lot of different packages and here is my list of grades, from worst to best:
1. worst - readiris 7 pro

2. middle of the road -
"bundled softwares" - that come with scanners

3. Above average - omnipage, Textbridge, Pagemanager

4. Very good - the Adobe Elements 2.0 bundle that came with my Canon Lide scanner.

5. 5-star favorite.

ABBYY Finereader Pro Version 5
I used only the older version 5 pro, so far.

WOW ! I was blown away by the accuracy of OCR.
It even beat out omnipage 8 and 9.
Co-workers/friends that saw my finereader pro vs their omnipage were equally impressed. They immediately asked their supervisors to get it for them. Luckily ABBYY offers "competitive upgrades", from ANY brand OCR software to finereader pro. [ABBYY finereader is VERY liberal in competitive upgrades. ANY OCR product qualifies. Now THAT is A+ customer service and marketing].

Maybe Readiris will improve, but version 7 was a dismal showing.

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