Problem

A customer wishes to try to scan handwritten material.

Applies to

1. Adobe Reader 

Resolution

1. In order to carry out the task of converting handwriting to text you will need to download Adobe Reader software (linked below).  You will also need a camera or scanner attached to the computer in order to capture for work. 
   
2. Once you have catpured the work you may then use the handwriting conversion facility via its online handwriting conversion feature.
   

Adobe Acrobat Reader

Link:  https://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/

1.       Open the scanned pdf as a New PDF from the main Acrobat window.

2.       Open the tools setting and locate ‘edit PDF‘,

3.       If you are scanning a document, wait for the document to be detected by Acrobat and click to select it.

4.       Your document will be scanned by Adobe’s OCR technology and converted from handwritten text to digitized text that you can edit using your keyboard.

5.       You can now use adobe to convert handwriting into text.

Google Drive

Google Drive is an onlilne service that features handwriting converesion facilities, requires a Google Account. 

 Link: 

https://www.google.com/drive/

1.       Scan your text.

2.       Make sure that your image is less than 2 MB and scanned in one of the supported formats: JPEG, PNG, GIF, or PDF.

3.       Upload the image to your Google Drive account.

4.       Right-click on the scanned image and click on Open with > Google Docs.

5.       Congratulations, Google has converted your file to text with OCR and opened it as computer text in a new Google document.

Microsoft OneNote

For those with Microsoft Office 365 subscription this option may be first choice.

Link:  www.office.com

1.       Drag your scanned picture into OneNote.

2.       Right-click on your picture and select Copy Text from Picture.

3.       If your document is more than one page, right-click on it and press Copy Text from all the pages of the Printout.

ReadIris

Link: https://www.irislink.com/

1.       Scan your document by clicking Scan (top left of the app’s menu) or insert your already scanned document by clicking Open (next to scan)

2.       Right-click the PDF and allow the app to automatically convert and export your edit-ready document.

Abbyy FineReader

Commercial Windows application for tradition text OCR and handwriting recognition.

 Link: 

https://pdf.abbyy.com/

1.       Scan your document by clicking Scan (top left of the app’s menu) or insert your already scanned document by clicking Open (next to scan)

2.       Right-click the PDF and allow the app to automatically convert and export your edit-ready document.

Soda PDF using link and steps below:

Commercial paid PDF app with handwriting conversion facility.

 Link: 

0https://www.sodapdf.com/ocr-pdf/

1.       Drag-and-drop your scanned document into the app

2.       Soda PDF app has converted your file into a modifiable document

3.       You can now edit, copy, or delete the text on your document.

Photo Scan

Commercial app with handwriting conversion.

 Link: 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/photo-scan-ocr-and-qr-code-scanner/9nblggh4s87w?activetab=pivot:overviewtab

1.       Scan (through your PC camera) or drag your photo in the app.

2.       Crop or rotate the photo if needed.

3.       Let the software scan it for you.

4.       Your document’s text is recognized and converted into computer text.