OCR Options

Selecting the right OCR options is crucial for flawless and fast OCR. The choice depends not only on the type and complexity of your paper document but also on how you are planning to use the electronic version.

OCR options are grouped together on the Read tab of the Options dialog box (Tools>Options…).

Important! ABBYY FineReader automatically recognizes the pages added to a document using the current options. You can turn off automatic analysis and OCR of newly added images on the Scan/Open tab of the Options dialog box (Tools>Options…).

Note: If you change the OCR options after a document has been recognized, run the OCR process again with the new options.

On the Read tab of the Options dialog box, you may select from the following options:

Reading mode
Select a reading mode.

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Two reading modes are available:
- Thorough reading
  This is a default mode. In this mode, ABBYY FineReader analyzes and recognizes both simple documents and documents with complex layouts, even those with text printed on a color or raster background and documents with complex tables (including tables with white grid lines and tables with color cells).
  Note: Compared to the Fast mode, the Thorough mode takes more time but ensures better recognition quality.
- Fast reading
  This mode is recommended for processing large documents with simple layouts and good quality images.
Select the mode that best suits your needs.
Training
Pattern training is disabled by default. Select the Read with training option to teach ABBYY FineReader new characters when it performs OCR on your pages.

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Pattern training is useful for the following types of texts:
- Texts printed in decorative fonts
- Texts which contain special characters (e.g. mathematical symbols)
- Large documents (more than 100 pages) of poor print quality
You can either use the built-in character patterns or create your own. Select the desired option under Training.
User patterns and languages
You can save user patterns and languages to a file and load previously saved user patterns and languages.

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The user pattern and language file you create stores the path to the folder with your user languages, language groups, dictionaries, and patterns.
To save user patterns and languages:
1. Click the Save to File… button
2. In the Save Options dialog box, enter a name for the file and click Save.
To load user patterns and languages:
1. Click the Load from File… button.
2. In the Load Options dialog box, select the desired *.fbt file and click Open.
Fonts
Here you can select the fonts to be used when saving recognized text.

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To select fonts:
1. Click the Fonts button.
2. Select the desired fonts and click OK.
Other
If your document contains barcodes and you wish them to be converted into strings of letters and digits rather than saved as pictures, select Look for barcodes. This option is cleared by default.