Re: Looking for old Delta programs

[Jim Stallings <jim@mcws.net>]

I have a bunch of code from the xerox.  I will bring it in Aug

Aron Insinga wrote:

> >would the OCR thing work for all that hardcopy ? it's gotten 
pretty good.
> >I don't know if it can handle asr or decwriter fonts though.
> >ron
>
> I've seen 'dot matrix' settings in OCR programs, probably both Xerox 
TextBridge and CAERE OnmiPage Pro.
>
> The hard thing with the LP output is that the type goes very close to 
the top and bottom edges of the pages.
>
> TTY output not only has the ribbon-newness problem that the LP output 
had, it also has the paper quality problem.  Having scanned in a few books 
that I helped publish for NESFA Press, mostly from photocopies of 
typewritten mss. or previously published editions in paper-back books, 
OCRing off of newsprint is much worse than off of glossy paper.  It 
probably helps to photocopy it, adjusting darkness to minimize extra fly 
specks, and then dabbing "white-out"/"liquid paper" "just-for-copies" on 
the fly specks (thinly; watch out for shadows from thick bumps of 
"white-out").  Also, keep regular yellow (or white if you have them, but 
yellow has done fine for me) "post-its" handy to mask off whatever you 
don't want scanned, like page headers, or like the first or last few lines 
if you're scanning less than a full page at a time to not have the first or 
last line fouled up.
>
> (We occasionally cut paper towels down to fit in the TTY when we were 
out of paper and the output was truely dreadful.  Someplace -- the CS 
dept.'s 11/45? -- had nice white paper in a TTY, but dropping the bottom 
edges of the characters was all too common.)
>
> - Aron