Because Esther recommended the app I gave it a try with a HP LaserJet CM2320 and it worked really well. The only thing that did not seem to work is the document feeder, but I only tried once, so there may be something more I need to do. Either way for $5 it is a handy piece of software to have.
On Jul 10, 2012, at 12:00 PM, Rick Alfaro wrote: > Ester, > > Fantastic post as usual. > > I happen to have the same printer you have that I purchased for $39 last > black Friday. I also have a Laser printer but I wanted an AirPrint enabled > one and the price was right. As you mentioned, my wife who is sighted had > to set it up because there was no way that I could find to do it myself. > After the setup however, I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised > on how well it works wirelessly. > > I didn't finish reading your message entirely due to my excitement and > installed the free version and did a scan and found out in a hurry that I > needed higher resolution for OCR. That's what I get for not reading your > message to the end. (lol) > > I do have Prysmo so I'll have to decide whether or not I'd use this app > enough to warrant a $5 purchase as I usually just scan whatever I need on my > desktop. > > Thanks again for the most informative message. > > Best, > > Rick > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf > Of Esther > Sent: Monday, July 09, 2012 7:36 PM > To: 9577AAC0-42E6-47A8-BF18-EC3BEC9823B7:ABMailRecent; > [email protected] > Subject: OCR with iOS devices with the VueScan app and wireless scanner > > Hi All, > > I use the Prizmo app with my iPhone 4's camera to OCR text. However, > recently I've been using a wireless scanner on my network that I control > with an iOS app named VueScan Mobile to send scans to the camera roll on my > iPhone or iPad, and then using OCR apps like Prizmo or TextGrabber that can > import images from the camera roll to OCR. This works pretty nicely when > I'm at my home network and want to get an OCR of a simple text document > without going go my computer. Now the gotcha is that the all-in-one > printer/scanner/copier that I'm using for this is the HP Photosmart D110a, > which is one of the first iOS AirPrint enabled printers. And I have to say > that I think this is a terrible printer to set up from the point of view of > accessibility, since it uses a touch screen with no tactile features or > audio feedback to select options and input the IP address information. On > the other hand, once it is set up (which you cannot do without sighted > assistance), you can work with this wirelessly as well as through a USB > connection. I'm using this printer because it was free with a MacBook Air > purchase that was made last year. I think that Apple has discontinued the > free or $99 reimbursement printer program since then. > > If you want to check whether this app will work with your wireless printer, > you can check the listed supported printers at the developer's "VueScan > Mobile" web page at: > http://www.hamrick.com/mob.html > Alternatively, you can download the free version of the VueScan Mobile app, > which does not have support for the high resolution option that is needed > for OCR, but which will otherwise work. > > In any case, this HP D110a printer, along with a number of other HP, Canon, > and Epson wireless printers, is automatically detected when you start up the > VueScan Mobile iOS app. There's a very simple "VueScan Mobile" screen with > an "Options" button and a "Scan" button at the bottom of the page. The > "Options" button lets you select the scanner (in case there is more than one > on your network), choose the resolution (which you want to be "high" for > OCR), select the scan mode ("text" for OCR, but also settings for black and > white or color photo), and an "append" switch button that can be set to "on" > for multipage documents. > > So to access the setup options, I would do a four finger tap on the bottom > half of the screen to go to the last element -- the "Scan" button -- and > flick left to the "Options" button and double tap. (These two buttons are > just above the "Home" button, but you have to move up and to the left to get > to the "Options" button, or up and to the right from the "Home" button to > get to the "Scan" button directly by touch.) There is one unlabeled button > in the top right corner of the "VueScan Mobile" screen, which is an info > button to access the "About" screen with the version number and an option to > "Email Problem Report". I use the two finger double tap and hold to label > this as "Info". After the triple tone a "Label Element" window should > appear that lets you type in your custom label in the text field. Flick > right the "Save" button and double tap to save your label. > > Once you have set up your options, double tap the "Scan" button. It takes > maybe 20 seconds for the scan to complete. You won't hear anything announced > until the scan is finished, when you'll hear "1 of 1". However, if you do a > two-finger flick up read all, you'll get an announcement "in progress" at > the end. I just wait now until I hear the "1 of 1". > > The page with the scanned results has a "Save" button in the top right, > which has options for "Camera Roll", "Send Email.", "Print", and "Other." > To OCR the page, you want to choose "Camera Roll", so you can open the jpeg > image in an OCR app that lets you select inputs from your camera roll > images. The other options will send an email with your image as an > attachment, bring up a printer options menu if you have an AirPrint enabled > printer on your network, or open the image in another app that is capable of > accepting either the PDF or jpeg output. On my devices this defaults to > iBooks, but this would simply store an image version of the contents in that > app. > > There are a few other buttons on the scanned output screen. There is a > "Scan" button in the top left corner to allow you to return to the "VueScan > Mobile" screen for more scanning. At the bottom of the screen, there are > three buttons. From left to right these are: "PLCrop" - interactively crop > the section of the scanned image (requires vision, so double tap the > "Cancel" button if you happened to select this); "PLRotateArrow" -- bring > you to a screen with buttons where you can rotate the image by 90 degrees to > the right (clockwise) or left (counterclockwise) with buttons at the bottom > of the screen labeled "RotateRight" and "RotateLeft"; "UIButtonBarTrash" -- > brings up a "Delete Page" option. I would either relabel this last button > as "Delete", or just remember that the last element on this page is the > button to "delete". > > If you do not delete the scan, and double tap the "Scan" button to return to > the "ViewScan Mobile" screen, there will now be a button in the top left > corner of the screen that allows you to return to the scanned page. It will > have a name like "Scan" followed by a series of numbers -- for example, > "Scan1341865680 1" button, > > So the procedure I follow, once I've set up the scan options for the > ViewScan Mobile app to "high" resolution and "text" is: > > 1. Open the ViewScan Mobile app > 2. Double tap the "Scan" button, which I locate with a four finger tap on > the bottom half of the screen to move to the last element 3. When the scan > completes after 20 seconds or so, and I hear the "1 of 1" announcement that > I am on the scanned screen, double tap the "Save" button in the top right > corner and select the "Camera Roll" button. (Note that if you do not find > buttons on the screen of scanned output, just double tap in the center of > the screen to bring these up. The scanned output screen behaves like ebook > reader apps in being able to show you the results with or without superposed > controls.) 4. Either single click the home button to go to the home screen > or, if I've recently used an OCR app like Prizmo or TextGrabber, double > click the home button to go to the App Switcher to launch my selected OCR > app. > 5. Assuming that I am using Prizmo for OCR: > 5a. I flick right past "Settings" to "Text" and double tap. > 5b. On the "Photo" screen I flick right to "Album" and double tap 5c. On the > "Photos" screen I flick right to "Camera Roll" and double tap 5d. On the > "Camera Roll" screen I do a four finger tap in the bottom half of the screen > to go to the last element. VoiceOver will announce this as "IMG" followed > by a sequence of numbers and the word "image". I double tap this entry and > am returned to the "Photo" screen. > 5e. On the "Photo" screen I flick right to the "Next" button in the top > right corner and double tap. > 5f. Prizmo enters the "Processing" screen and after 1 or 2 seconds I'm taken > to the "Edit" screen. You can double tap in the text area to make > corrections and then double tap the "Done" button. Or you can just double > tap the "Next" button again in the top right corner. > 5g. On the "Text" screen there is a bottom row of buttons with options like > "Read", "Translate", "Copy", "Album", and "Mail". If you do a three finger > swipe to the right, you'll get the second page of options, which include > "Dropbox", "Evernote", and "CloudApp". Some of these you won't use ("Read" > lets you purchase a voice to read your scanned text -- but since we have > VoiceOver I never bother with that; on the previous version of Prizmo > "MobileMe" was also an option that appeared before "Dropbox", but it was > removed.) I don't use the "Save" button in the top right corner, which > stores the results in the > > I also tried this with TextGrabber and got slightly better results from the > OCR. The steps for TextGrabber are: > 6. Assuming I am using TextGrabber for OCR: > 6a. Double tap the "Album" button in the bottom right corner of the screen > 6b. On the "Photos" screen I flick right to "Camera Roll" and double tap 6c. > On the "Camera Roll" screen I do a four finger tap in the bottom half of the > screen to go to the last element. VoiceOver will announce this as "IMG" > followed by a sequence of numbers and the word "image". I double tap this > entry and am returned to a screen where VoiceOver announces "CropClipper, > dimmed". (This is for interactive cropping of the image, which requires > vision, and I don't use.) 6d. I double tap the "Read" button in the bottom > right corner of the screen. (This is also the last element in the screen, > if you want to use a four-finger tap on the bottom half of the screen to > navigate.) 6e. The image is taken through OCR, and the process takes a few > seconds longer than with Prizmo. If I touch the bottom of the screen while > this is in progress, I'll hear VoiceOver say "Recognition" > 6f. On the "TextGrabber" screen I can read the text with a two finger flick > up "read all" or I can double tap the center of the field to edit the text, > then double tap the "Done" button in the top right corner of the screen to > exit this mode. > 6g. I double tap the "Menu" button in the bottom right corner of the screen. > The menu options are redrawn on the bottom of the screen, so to access them > I move my finger up the screen from the bottom right corner to "Dictionary" > or more usually, I'll move my finger up from the "History" button inthe > bottom left corner to "Copy" and double tap to copy the text to the > clipboard, Then I can paste it into any other app. Other options that you > can navigate to (in the 8 options over the bottom half of the screen from > the menu are: Twitter, Facebook, Evernote, Google Search, Copy, Mail, SMS, > and Dictionary (only works if you bought the ABBYY Lingvo dictionaries > application). > > Overall, I've had the best results with OCR (directly to my iPhone 4, not > via a scanner), with Prizmo and ABBYY TextGrabber. Prizmo seem more robust, > in that it can more easily tolerate slight misalignments in camera images > and still give good results, where TextGrabber requires more precise > positioning and holding of the camera. If you want to learn to use one of > these OCR apps with VoiceOver without vision, then I also think that Prizmo > is the best app to use to train yourself. I've also used the ZoomReader app > with voice control enabled, just using VoiceOver to OCR. (This app is > designed for low vision users, but in versions following the original > release they enabled VoiceOver support). One distinct difference about this > app when used to OCR images from the camera roll, is that the images have to > be correctly oriented (with top of page at the top of the image), in order > for the OCR to work. This limitation doesn't hold true for Prizmo or > TextGrabber; I can rotate the image I use from the camera roll by 90 degrees > in any direction and still get the OCR results provided the text in my image > is well aligned with the edges of the picture frame. This also means that I > don't have to worry about whether I scanned a page upside down with the > VueScan Mobile app before I send it to the camera roll for use with an OCR > app like Prizmo or TextGrabber, but I do have to worry about this if I use > ZoomReader from the camera roll. Presumably this is because ZoomReader is > designed for low vision users, and they use the extra information about text > orientation in the, which can determined if you have vision, to try to get a > better OCR solution. So a low vision user might find that ZoomReader works > better as an OCR tool. > > The VueScan Mobile + OCR combination via either Prizmo or TextGrabber on an > iPhone or iPad isn't meant to challenge use of a scanner on your computer. > It's simply that this combination is good enough for many purposes without > having to go to my computer. And this should be usable by all the people who > have difficulty using an OCR app like Prizmo and taking pictures with the > camera. Since the images are relayed from your scanner, and are sent to > your camera roll, this should be usable on devices with either a poor camera > or no camera, provided you can load up the OCR app on that device. (I know > this works with Prizmo, because I tried loading up the app on a first > generation iPad to find out how well it could OCR screen captures. The > answer is, not particularly very well since the resolution of the iPad 1 > screen isn't that good. However, images sent from the VueScan Mobile app > using a supported wireless printer should have better resolution.) > > For those of you who are interested in trying this app, here's a link to the > URL of the free version of the VueScan Mobile app: > . VueScan Mobile Free by Hamrick Software (free, but does not support the > high resolution option needed for OCR) > http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vuescan-mobile-free/id486283293?mt=8 > You can check whether your wireless scanner device is recognized and > supported by the free version of the app. If it is, you can get the full > version of the VueScan Mobile app: > . VueScan Mobile by Hamrick Software ($4.99) > http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vuescan-mobile/id450984682?mt=8 > > This app is available internationally. Again, you can read more about this > app and the supported HP, Canon, and Epson devices. I'd love to know about > more accessible wireless scanners or all-in-one devices that include a > scanner. And Scott Howell gets the blame for bringing this app to my > attention *grin*. He mentioned it in a viphone list post last year. > > HTH. Cheers, > > Esther > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google > Group. > To search the VIPhone public archive, visit > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google > Group. > To search the VIPhone public archive, visit > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en.
