2018-02-02 02:09:04

SmartLense for android is free and works very good for OCR. I got an alcatel a30 plus for $129 off amazon It has a 13mp camera. It should be here by tomorrow so I'll set it up and see how it does compared to the 8mp camera on the old blu energy x phone. the alcatel a30 runs android nougat 7.0 and it also has more storeage.

2018-02-08 02:58:00

Unfortunately, I've had a negative experience with KNFB Reader, at least the Windows store app.

I bought it last summer when it was on sale, but I didn't get around to testing it until yesterday. I know, that was pretty dumb of me. In any case, each time I tried scanning a document, the entire app crashed. I tried a couple of different things, from instruction manuals I had lying around, to a piece of mail, and even a gift card which I had no clue what it was. Each time, it would scan successfully. Then the app would close, and I would be booted back to my desktop. I'm using an older model Epson Perfection scanner. I can't remember the exact number off the top of my head, but I could easily get it. I know it was from 2010 or maybe 2011.

If it doesn't support older desktop scanners, fine, but really, that should be listed in the help file if that's the case. Speaking of which, I suppose it could be, but even reading that was flaky. It crashed when I tried to advance to the next page a couple of times, so I never finished reading it.

The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It's just holding half the amount it can potentially hold.

2018-02-08 18:20:54

It's probably not the scanner if it scanned the document and the scanner was able to return to its home position. It sounds like its crashing while trying to process the document, which is really odd, and counter intuitive. I still get nothing but jumble lya (hehehehe) with it, even though I have the level thing on and its not vibrating, I have the overhehad lighting on so its got plenty of light, but the light is far enough away there shouldn't be a glare, and the field report thing says all edges visible.

Facts with Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, and Dax
End racism
End division
Become united

2018-05-30 19:51:15

I know this is an old topic, but this is the best place for this message.

I had an occasion to use KNFB Reader today, it has been a while since I last used it since I do most of my OCR work on my PC.

I have to say that I'm pretty disappointed with what they've done to it in recent updates. It is no longer as easy to use or as convenient as it used to be.

In response, I deleted it from my phone. I will be using Seeing AI for OCR work on my phone from now on.

So, in answer to the question this thread asks, I have to say no, if I were looking for a mobile OCR solution, it wouldn't be KNFB Reader.

Good job KNFB! You've certainly shown us that you know how to ruin a perfectly good app.

2018-05-30 20:03:23

I never saw a reason to buy it not when free apps like Seeing AI do just fin with reading text.

Kingdom of Loathing name JB77

2018-05-30 21:05:03

At the time I bought it, Seeing AI didn't exist, and the other available OCR apps weren't very good. So it was the best option despite its price.

But with what they've done to it in recent updates, and with apps like Seeing AI available for free, and producing very respectable results, KNFB Reader is no longer worth the asking price.

Don't misunderstand me, I don't regret buying the app, I got three or more years of use out of it, and that is worth something to me.

2018-05-31 02:41:44

Unfortunately, I didn't find the app useful at all, seeing as how I couldn't get it to function properly on my PC. I was lucky in that Kurzweil was purchased for me, so I do have a reliable OCR solution when I need to scan something and make sure that the results are private. Seeing AI is great for what it does though, it is truly a powerful app that deserves tons of respect. If I want to read something that shouldn't be in the cloud, I'll stick with Kurzweil.

The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It's just holding half the amount it can potentially hold.

2018-05-31 13:55:06

Turtlepower17, Good point about privacy and keeping things out of the cloud, for me, for anything I don't want going to the cloud, I'll use Open Book or the convenient OCR in JAWS. One neat feature I like about the OCR in JAWS is that it will tell you the orientation of the sscanned page, right side up, sideways, upside down, and etc, nice when it's important to be able to orient the page properly for something like putting it in a folder with other pages.

2018-05-31 15:51:47

My beef with it is how slow they are at updating the knfb app, at least on android. It gets updated a month or so after a major android release. Google puts developer betas out roughly 4 to 5 months before launch, thus making this pretty near inexcusable. Beta builds are there to insure your app is ready for the next release. End of story. So by waiting till later on in the cycle, it's inhibiting on folks who do their part and beta test the next Android release. As accessibility users we all should be on the cutting edge, if possible. It's on them to insure that the accessibility is kept in line, but it's on us to find what doesn't work and alert Google to such deficiencies, that's what feedback Hubs are for. So when an essential app with a high asking price like KNFB stops working on a paying customer who believes it necessary to test beta builds, that's a problem. When updating an app to work on newer revisions, it's not like compatibility's broken for earlier builds, in most cases. So by all means, release the damn update when it's actually ready, and don't draw it out. Obviously downgrading Android builds is out of the question. It's true that Android is one of the easiest systems to get back up and running after a reflash, but that doesn't mean it's enjoyable nor efficient. Downgrading your Android beta means a full data wipe. So you can imagine our frustration when an app of this kind that we rely on to scan printed pages and pdf's stops working, even on a beta build. So my point being, it would be unreasonable for me to say that the app should be updated the second the developer beta gets released because that's not practical. But at least release the thing in the middle of the cycle instead of a few months after release! But who am I kidding, Android users have always been second class users when it comes to what apps we get, it's just started getting better as more things hit android, but I wait around and ios users get a nice update to knfb 3.0, all be it an interface-changing one, and we don't even get so much as an update patch in a reasonable amount of time. If this were a free product I wouldn't be complaining, but it is an app that costs a lot more than the typical rentware fee. The only hint of my problem with the app before I actually posted part of this same rant to Twitter was a sarcastic response to the update tweet news:
Can't wait for it to come to Android P! *wink wink*  quoting NFB: @KNFBReader 3.0 can recognize and read documents  in over thirty different languages! Learn which languages are supported at http://www.knfbreader.com
So yes I probably ruffled a few feathers with that one, but it's a valid concern for an app that costs so much.