Question

Alternative to Adobe Acrobat Professional?

Asked by: ggordon777

I have been using the trial version of Adobe Acrobat 8.0 to manage scanned images and to create OCR searchable .pdf files.  My trial is ending soon and I just learned that the cost of this product is $450.00, which is very expensive.  Is there other more reasonably priced .pdf / ocr software out there?

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Asked On
2007-02-17 at 18:50:01ID22396780
Tags

acrobat

,

alternative

,

professional

,

adobe

Topics

Microsoft Windows Operating Systems

,

Adobe Acrobat

,

OCR / Scanner Software

Participating Experts
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Answers

 

by: itkamarajPosted on 2007-02-17 at 20:45:55ID: 18557608

use this software

foxit reader

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

 

by: squarecatPosted on 2007-02-19 at 01:46:41ID: 18561798

 

by: khkremerPosted on 2007-02-19 at 10:44:00ID: 18564878

There is only one real alternative to Acrobat Professional: Nitro PDF - http://www.pdfstore.com/details.asp?ProdID=790

But even with Nitro, there are certain things that only Acrobat will do. At the end it depends on your requirements if you can work without Adobe Acrobat.

 

by: trh01Posted on 2007-02-27 at 01:37:18ID: 18615617

If you literally only want to convert scanned documents to readable PDF files then Adobe Acrobat is total overkill.   You would be paying for far more functionality that you really need (however, do you not want to convert say, Word/Excel/Powerpoint files to PDF too?  Or the myriad of other things that Acrobat offers?).

There are a number of programs that will convert paper to readable PDF.   You have lots of suggestions above, to which I would add:

1.  Abbyy Finereader - http://www.abbyy.com/ - the latest version 8.0 is pretty expensive ($400) from Abbyy, but any version from 6.0 onwards does PDF, so I would shop around and look on Ebay.

2.  Omnipage 15 - http://www.nuance.com/omnipage/standard/ - is available new for $150.   I have used version 11, and it produced good results.   So you may well find an earlier version than the current 15 at a lower price.

It should go without saying that you need to trial the software before buying - as you may find you have "unrealised requirements" as you use it for real.   One obvious one that people forget about is that many docs include graphics/diagrams as well as text - and OCR software varies widely in how well it copes with anything other than plain text.

Richard

 

by: khkremerPosted on 2007-02-27 at 04:55:16ID: 18616336

You can have Abbyy's FineReader for a lot less if you buy an upgrade. You can upgrade from _ANY_ OCR program. I suspect you have one that came with your scanner. The upgrade is $179.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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