H A N D Y - R E A D E R Version: 3.04 Date: 05/06/90 Distributed by: CAMERON Elektronische Produkte GmbH Pfaffenweg 1 D-7024 Filderstadt 4 West Germany Copyright (c) 1988-90 by: Imperial SOFTware Systems Gerdes KG Lessenicher Straße 9 D-5300 Bonn 1 West Germany Program, documentation and adaptation are protected by law. Duplications for other than private purposes are prohibited and will be prosecuted. In order to make full use of the HANDY-READER, you either need a HANDY- SCANNER of CAMERON GmbH, the Mitsumi A4 Scanner or the Gerdes Personal A4 Scanner. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This file informs you about the recent improvements and changes concerning the HANDY-READER. We'd also like to make suggestions for solving problems of general interest. If you have any comments on the HANDY-READER write a short letter to CAMERON GmbH. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 3.04 dated on 05/06/90 is the sixth release-version of HANDY-READER for the Commodore AMIGA. It replaces version 3.03 from 04/02/90. A fourth version (3.02) was released on 09/25/89. The third version (3.01) originated on 05/08/89. The second version (3.0) was dated 11/21/88. The first Version (2.0) was dated 07/21/88. The following bugs have been corrected: - If you defined an area that was larger than your scan version 2.0 sometimes crashed while recognizing. This does not happen any more. 3.0 - Handy-Reader had problems with some of the Personal A4 Scanners. It started scanning about 2.8 cm from the left border. This does not happen any more. 3.01 - A bug in the recognition-algorithm sometimes caused incorrect recognition or hang-ups. This has been fixed. 3.01 - If you had a Commodore AMIGA with more then 2.5MByte and used a Handy- Scanner in 200dpi mode Handy-Reader could not believe in the amount of free memory and crashed. The overflow that caused this problem will not occur any more. 3.02 - In case you have several programs running at the same time Handy-Reader will now correctly ignore mouse movements on other screens. 3.02 - There were apparently not sensible line feeds in long lines with large characters because one buffer was too small. This bug has been corrected by doubling the size of the buffer which should be sufficient for all sensible cases. 3.03 - During teach-in it happened that Handy-Reader learned empty strings instead of valid characters due to a programming error. This bug has been fixed. 3.04 The following improvements have been made: - HANDY-READER now also supports the 200dpi DINA4-Scanner "Personal Scanner". HANDY-READER tests which scanner is connected and takes appropriate steps. Double resolution is not possible with this scanner. If you want to scan a complete DINA4-page you must have at least 1MByte RAM. It is advisable not to use the second scan-buffer or to have it on disc. (see also below) HANDY-READER had also to be adapted in order to be able to cope with the amount of text you might find on a whole A4 page. Memory management was modified, too, because a complete A4 page was to be scanned into an AMIGA with exactly 1MByte RAM. 3.0 - Handy-Reader now also supports the Handy-Scanner type 10 (105mm wide, 200/ 300/400dpi resolution) as well as the Mitsumi A4 Scanner (200/300dpi in up to 64 dithering-gray-scales). If you want to use one of these scanners you need the apropriate interface. 3.02 - In case of an error which forces Handy-Reader to exit to DOS Handy-Reader now tries to display the cause of the error using an Alert. Thus you should be informed about the cause of the error even if you started Handy-Reader via Workbench. 3.03 - If you have not much free memory you do not always have to use the full scan-width. `ow there is a new menu item ("Set scan-width limit") which enables you to limit the width of the scan-in. Selecting this item allows you to enter the maximum scan-width in mm. This width will be used at maximum (starting from the left border of the original) when scanning. If you do not want to have a limitation of the scan-width, you simply have to enter a "?". 3.02 - The menu "Font data" has been extended by "Teach & Recog". This is a combi- nation of "Teach-in" and "Recognize"; it might be called a very sophisti- cated teach-in. It is used similary - especially the definition of an area - to the functions quoted above. HANDY-READER starts to translate the text into ASCII if you have called this function. In case it is not sure about a character it will ask you the correct interpretation. Thus you get your original translated and you improve your database in one pass. Nonetheless, a simple "Recognize" is faster than this function (if you want nothing but a translation) and if HANDY-READER mixes characters up you will still have to use "Teach-in" in order to correct these faults. Anyway, this function is a very interesting addition to our HANDY-READER and it will certainly replace the "Teach-in" in most cases. 3.0 - You will find two new menu-items below the titel "Scanner". The first one is "Scan must be restored". You can use it in order to specify if you need a backup of the original picture or not. The backup serves for re- storation of the picture after recognition. Horizontal scanning is only possible if you have a backup of your picture. HANDY-READER tries to make a backup-copy nonetheless and only works without it if this is not possible. 3.0 - The second new item is "Disc may be used". This tells HANDY-READER if the backup may be stored on disc or must be kept in memory. If the backup is on disc HANDY-READER will certainly need more time than if it were in memory and there must be enough free space on the disc you use. The disc will only be used if there is not enough space in memory. The name of the backup-file can easily be changed in "Text.txt" with an ASCII-Editor. 3.0 - Another new menu-item is "Find text areas" under the title "Recognize". This works like "Recognize". HANDY-READER just tries to find sensible passages of text on its own. Thus three columns with a title in full width can be translated in one pass. Output is in the same order as you would read the text. 3.0 - New under the same heading is also "Font size". If you know the font size of your original you may enter it here. Knowing the correct size will im- prove the quality of the recognition. If you do not know the size you may enter something like a "?". The fonts of a typewriter normally are 10 to 12 point high. Attention: Many small fonts that are supposed to be 12 point high are only about 11 pt. high. In this case the next function might help you. 3.0 - Closely connected to the previous menu item is "Help font size". If you do not know the correct font size you can use this function to find out how large your font is. Before calling this function you must look for an uppercase (!) letter and define a frame around it. The frame is defined in the same way as an area for text recognition. Now you may select this menu item and your computer will tell you the estimated size of the font on your original. If used properly this estimated size is much more exact than the knowledge of the font size from other sources. In the first place you have to be careful when drawing your scanner (if you have a HANDY- SCANNER), then you should indeed select an uppercase letter and the frame must fit exactly around your character. 3.0 - Now some options follow that you can use to specify parameters for text  Please continue reading in ReadMe1