Best way to OCR PDFs? Neat/Doxie + Software? Or stand-alone software?

[Mikeyswen79]

I want to digitize and OCR a lot of papers. I want it to be as smooth as possible, with as little line breaks as possible. I use Apple Preview to highlight these documents and sometimes it highlights the whole page, the line breaks are way off, and certain words are simply unscannable. This is all thanks to Adobe Acrobat X Pro, which is not so good at OCR in my experience.

Scanners like Neat Doxie come with software that can OCR it, or can OCR while scanning. But do they OCR with quality?

Any Stand-alone software alternatives to the Acrobat Pro X I have used (which caused the chaos described above). I hear Evernote OCRs, but is it good? What is?

I need the best. One rule: it can't be Windows-only software as I will not run a parallel.

 

[jimthing]

I want to digitize and OCR a lot of papers. I want it to be as smooth as possible, with as little line breaks as possible. I use Apple Preview to highlight these documents and sometimes it highlights the whole page, the line breaks are way off, and certain words are simply unscannable. This is all thanks to Adobe Acrobat X Pro, which is not so good at OCR in my experience.

Scanners like Neat Doxie come with software that can OCR it, or can OCR while scanning. But do they OCR with quality?

Any Stand-alone software alternatives to the Acrobat Pro X I have used (which caused the chaos described above). I hear Evernote OCRs, but is it good? What is?

I need the best. One rule: it can't be Windows-only software as I will not run a parallel.

Fujitsu Scansnap range really are the best in the consumer/SOHO space. The best one currently is the iX500, which scans WIRELESSLY.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fujitsu-ScanSnap-iX500-Duplex-Scanner/dp/B00AR55MLU
http://www.amazon.com/Fujitsu-ScanSnap-iX500-Scanner-PA03656-B005/dp/B00ATZ9QMO

I have the previous wired model S1500M (Mac version in white, with Adobe Acrobat For Mac 9 included), vs. the Win version S1500 (Win version in black, with a Win version of Acrobat bundled). Though either model comes with the non-Acrobat software for Mac & Win anyway.

All of these machines are the best ones to use, over the cheaper ones, when it comes to mass scanning/OCRing paperwork.

If you think they're pricey for 'just a doc scanner'; they're NOT. High-end doc scanners can be thousands so these at a few hundred are great value, and can digitise A LOT of paper in a short timeframe — trust me never complain about the cash when you've gotten rid of the piles of paper in an office archive or suchlike!