PDF XChange Forum

NEW OCR OPTIONS AVAILABLE IN THE PDF-XCHANGE VIEWER - FREE !!!

In build 2.5.200 a new feature was added that we hope all our users will find useful - here are some notes to save you asking what we expect will be some of the more common questions ...

1: Yes its FREE - available in both the FREE and licensed versions without restrictions

2: The initial functionality is intentionally limited - this release is designed to convert PDF's with image based content (wholly or partially) into fully text searchable PDF files where possible

3: We did not include a single step function to Scan and OCR for the simple reason we ran out of time to include this before Christmas and have 2 key staff relocating from our European offices to our Head office here in Canada - we may look at adding this in a future V2.x release - or simply wait for Version 3 to be released where a more comprehensive OCR set of functions will be available.

4: You can copy/paste the text layer into other applications such as Notepad, Word etc - but complex formatting and fonts/styles will NOT be preserved - the functionality is intended to create text searchable PDF's - not a complex OCR/Edit solution - that will be provided in Version 3.

5: In the default installation 4 languages are included, English, German, French and Spanish - to have included all available Languages would have increased the download size dramatically - over the coming 7-10 days options to download and install a variety of Languages will be made available.

6. This will remain a free set of functions in all coming builds (and will be improved as time goes on) - including Version 3 - more complex OCR functionality will be provided in future as a chargeable, optional plug-in.

7. We will be adding KB articles and extending the help file to include OCR in the next 30 days.

We have created a new forum for all end user OCR questions OCR- For the PDF-XChange Viewer so please use it accordingly rather than posting in the Viewer (this) forum.

Merry Christmas, & Happy Holidays to all our users - we hope you enjoy the new options and find them useful !

Team Tracker Software !

John - Tracker Supp wrote:We have created a new forum for all end user OCR questions OCR- For the PDF-XChange Viewer so please use it accordingly rather than posting in the Viewer (this) forum.

I am logged it, but I don't have permission to read posts in the new OCR forum. Have you forgotten to set the required permissions?

Bhikkhu Pesala wrote:I am logged it, but I don't have permission to read posts in the new OCR forum. Have you forgotten to set the required permissions?

Same here.

And, big THANK YOU for this option to Tracker

EDIT: If I download Portable ZIP (incl. OCR) | 8 MB, I get only OCR modules, right? Not PDFX + OCR?

Hello ZoNi and Bhikkhu,

Thanks for the report -I will now check the OCR forum permissions.

As for the PDFX_Vwr_Port_OCR.zip - you are correct Zoni, it only contains the ocr files - please extract the whole folder inside your Portable Viewer's directory and all will be well.

Best,
Stefan

Wow, thank you! This sounds really great
I've been searching for a long time for a cheap and easy to use solution to get my (and other) scanned pdfs searchable. And now it's integrated in my favorite pdf reader - for free

I have corrected those permissions on the OCR forum. I've tested them and they should be good now. Can any of you confirm this?

please and thanks

What a great addition. Many thanks for including this feature. Normally I would have to run scanned images through a stand alone OCR now I can just scan with Tracker and OCR the images. I have found the OCR to be VERY accurate and am very delighted with the feature. Again, many thanks to the Tracker team for this excellent addition. I always highly recommend Tracker to people looking for an alternative to the much more expensive Adobe.

Many thanks Sam -appreciate the kind words !

Very nice and needed feature!
One question how to enable OCR in the portable version. I extract the ocr zip file and copy the ocrdats folder into the folder where portable PDF viewer is located but the OCR feature does not work on the portable version.
What am I missing?

Thanks

PS: never mind, I figure out! Thanks

Hi chanh,

did you make sure your portable version is build 200? If it's older than 200 adding the files to the working directory won't help.

The OCR works great! Is there any chance for adding new -not mainstream- languages like greek?

Here you go: "European Languages Pack" -> https://www.pdf-xchange.com/pdf-xchange-viewer-ocr

More will be made available shortly ...

Is it possible somehow to download languages as separate packs?

For example, I need only English, German and Serbian. Please, provide those separate files (for me, it is OK to ZIP them ALL together, and I can extract only those that I need).

Thank you anyway.

Hi,

English and German are provided in all installers by default - the only additional 1 you would need is Serbian and this is available here ;

https://www.pdf-xchange.com/pdfxocr ... nguage_ext

HTH

Thanks!

You have many stuff on web site, so sometimes it is not easy to find something

When I download Serbian (or any other) support, I have to manually create srp.lng file?

If I don't do that, new language will not be recognized. Am I correct? (If yes, it would be better to add .LNG file with each xxx_pxvocr.dat)

Hello ZoNi,

If you download the end user language packs installers from here:
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/pdf-xchange-viewer-ocr
They should do the work for you, but if you downloaded an individual language package from the developers page - then yes - you will need to manually add the .lng file, and also amend the Langs.ini file to include your newly added language.

Best,
Stefan

One idea: can PDFX now OCR-read regular PDF, that is password protected?

I guess that would be GREAT option!

Hi,

If you have access to the password and it allows you to modify the file/page - then you can do this, but if the author has not allowed this behaviour then I am afraid we will not provide a means to 'side step' the authors right to restrict access to their copyrighted material.

Hope that helps

John - Tracker Supp wrote:Hope that helps

Well... no, but thank you for your answer!

Of course, I can use some tools to remove that protection - it is just one step more.

Hi ZoNi,

I removed your link from the above post, and yes - while such tools exist - we do conform to the PDF specification and will not support or advertise them.

Best,
Stefan

Hello,

would it be possible to have the language packs as portable installations?

Hello vvs,

We do have the language packs (grouped by region) as separate installers:
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/pdf-xchange-viewer-ocr

But if you want to use those along with the portable Viewer - then you might need to manually do some "tweaking" in the viewer's folder. In this topic I have explained the steps needed to manually register a new language. The paths will of course need to be updated - as your portable Viewer is most likely not stored in C:\Program Files.

Best,
Stefan

Just wanted to say this feature is EXCELLENT! I actually did not even realize it was added when I upgraded to the new version; I just happened to see the menu option by accident. It has become extremely useful to me as I use this program in medical school to take notes during lectures; many of our lecturers simply created "images" of old slides, and the converted them to PDF. While I always always able to take notes using PDF-XChange, I was unable to highlight, search, or underline any of the "image/text" - the OCR has worked flawlessly! Great job guys!

Thanks for the feedback and kind words hockyfan,

don't be shy to spread the word!

I am a long-time user of PDF X-Change Viewer. I don't update my version frequently, but did recently and saw the OCR implementation. I have used some online apps to convert PDF images to text-readable format with mixed success in the past, but otherwise I don't have a basis to compare it against other resident applications. That said, I have found that it does an excellent job of converting text: I can do reliable text searching and copy-and-paste into other documents--more accurate than the online apps I have used. Thanks!

Hi DrBB01,

Thanks for compliments, they're always appreciated! we're glad you like it!