12.0

ABBYY FineReader 12 User’s Guide

Scanning Paper Documents

You can scan a paper document and recognize the resulting image in ABBYY FineReader 1 2.

Complete the following steps to scan an image.

1. Make sure that the scanner is properly connected to your computer and turn it on.

When connecting a scanner to your computer, follow the instructions in the scanner's manual or

other accompanying documentation, and make sure you install the software that comes with the

scanner. Some scanners have to be turned on before the computer they are connected to.

2. Place the page you want to scan in the scanner. You can place multiple pages if your

scanner is equipped with an automatic document feeder. Try to make sure that the pages

in the scanner are positioned as straight as possible. The document may be converted

incorrectly if the text on the scanned image is skewed too much.

3. Click the Scan button or click Scan Pages… on the File menu.

In the scanning dialog box, specify the scanning settings and scan the document. The resulting

images will be displayed in the Pages window.

Note: If a FineReader document is already open, newly scanned pages will be appended to the end

of this document. If there is no open FineReader document, a new one will be created from these

pages.

Tip: If you need to scan documents that were printed on a regular printer, use the grayscale mode

and a resolution of 300 dpi for best results.

Recognition quality depends on the quality of the hardcopy document an on the settings used when

the document was scanned. Low image quality may adversely affect recognition, so specifying the

correct scanning settings and taking the characteristics of the source document into account is

important.

Brightness settings

If the brightness was specified incorrectly in the scanning settings, a message prompting you to

change the brightness setting will appear during recognition. Scanning some documents in black –

and–white mode may require additional brightness adjustments.

Complete the following steps to change the brightness setting:

1. Click the Scan button.

2. Specify the brightness in the dialog box that opens.

Note: The standard brightness setting (50%) works in most cases.

3. Scan the image.

If the resulting image contains many defects such as letters blending together or becoming

disjointed, refer to the table below for recommendations on how to get a better image.

Problems with the image

Recommendations

Text like this is ready for recognition and no

adjustments need to be made.

Characters are disjointed, too bright and too

 Decrease the brightness to make the

image darker

 Use the grayscale scanning mode