MFP, searching in PDF's ??

[Hansoon]

MFP, searching in PDF's ??

MFP customer of mine got an offer from Canon for a new MFP. The salesfreak from Canon told them that "The new Canons have a feature to scan originals, producing PDF's, which allow searching through the files to find text or keywords and phrases within that scanned PDF."

I can hardly believe that this is a hardwared option so it will likely be a software gimmick. Do the newer MFP's from other brands have this software also included?

Any not too expensive third party software able to do this searching and will it work with all kind of PDF's or are there restrictions?

I got from colleagues already interesting information on this matter but I want to collect as much as possible knowledge about this subject. Problem seems to be that in general PDF's searching is easy but PDF's made on a MFP (in this case Minolta) are not searchable until now with the suggested methods.

Hans

[ivovb]

One more time.

Generally we are talking about OCR when we say searchable PDF. There is very good software for doing this - AABBY Fine Reader (v9 is newer as I remember). Moreover this soft has very good recognition for cyrillic.

Next step is a Toshiba's solution Re-Rite which is working as described:
1. MFP is set to scan to network folder (SMB, FTP). Lets name it scan folder.
2. Re-Rite is monitoring this scan folder. After delivery of a file to this folder Re-Rite automatically takes file and makes OCR procedure.
3. When the file is done Re-Rite makes OCR file to PDF and writes it to some folder. Let name it destination folder.

The whole process is invisible for user. He/She just makes scan on MFP via Template button (predefined scanning setting) and receives OCR PDF file in destination folder. Voila! You have searchable pdf!

It is just an example. Re-Rite is more powerful soft despite cyrillic recognition is not so good or even missing. Talking about latin letters - no problem.

BR

PS Ops. Excuse me for mentioning Toshiba in Konica Minolta forum.

[Hansoon]

PS Ops. Excuse me for mentioning Toshiba in Konica Minolta forum.

Why apologizing are we Tonerdiggers not all equal? .

Seriously:
Thanks for that interesting input "ivovb" According to your explanation it is hardware independent but does that mean everybody may obtain this RE-RITE software without any proof of possession of Toshiba hardware in connection with it?

Hans

[ivovb]

I am not 100% sure, because I didn't test it with other brand. Availability - it depends of your local Toshiba policy - you have to ask.

Anyway I suppose that this system must be working brand independently because soft is monitoring folder. If I drag and drop a file in scan folder soft must done its work. But it must be tested!

BR