Hi Patrick The one you are using looks interesting too: https://docs.paperless-ngx.com/
Can you handle PDFs and parse the content? Do you like it so far? -v On Tue, Nov 4, 2025 at 8:54 AM Patrick O'Connor <[email protected]> wrote: > What software do you use Ted? > > That sounds appealing. > I have been messing with this. I would love have an OCR to database setup. > I have some uaecasea at work. > > https://docs.paperless-ngx.com/ > > Patrick > > > ---- On Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:02:16 -0800 Ted Mittelstaedt < > [email protected]> wrote --- > > Followup on the "handwritten forms" > > > > If you are able to convert these forms into a multiple-choice form that > people fill in boxes by hand, instead of writing actual words on them, I can > > Tell you how to convert these into actual data output. At my office we > have this customer satisfaction survey thing that we do periodically, and > > For a zillion unrelated reasons it has to be handed out on paper. > The department doing it was wringing their hands over this as it would take > > Hours and hours and hours for some poor soul to go through all of the > forms and input the results into a spreadsheet. > > > > I looked into commercial products that do this - and there's only 1 > company out there that sells software nowadays for this - Tungsten > Automation. These turkeys have been spending the last decade buying up > every company in the "hybrid paper workflows" market and they now have a > complete monopoly on it - and literally they sell complete systems, they no > longer sell standalone software that does forms conversions. Pricing is > quote-only and it's in the low 5 figures. > > > > I found an open source software program for this and built a system > around it - so now, they just feed the 300 or so paper surveys into the > hopper in a scanner like what I just linked to, and all the resulting PDF's > get fed into the system and the data is then loaded into a MariaDB > database. I then took their Excel spreadsheet and converted it into a > front end using the ODBC drivers for MariaDB. Works slick saves hours of > drudgery. > > > > Anyway, this is only good for multiple choice click box forms that > people fill out by hand. For OCR of cursive or handwritten printing - good > effing luck. > > > > Ted > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: PLUG <[email protected]> On Behalf Of VY > > Sent: Tuesday, November 4, 2025 4:47 AM > > To: General Linux/UNIX discussion and help, civil and on-topic < > [email protected]> > > Subject: [PLUG] document scanner > > > > Dear All > > > > I am looking for a good document scanner that is Linux compatible. > Better yet if it is Raspberry Pi compatible. > > > > I have a bunch of forms that have hand writing on them. I will be > getting > > them on a regular basis and I like to scan them and convert them to > high-resolution PDFs. > > > > Any pointer for such a scanner is much appreciated. > > > > -Vincent > > > > > >
