Copying text from an image file?

[Brecht]

Does anybody know if it's possible to copy and extract the text from an image file? Any useful software available? Thanks!

[ulitka]

Google for OCR-Software ("Optical character recognition")

Whilst such software should have no problems with this text


it may be harder (or error-prone) to extract text from here.

[ConstantOgler]

Originally Posted by Norbert84

Does anybody know if it's possible to copy and extract the text from an image file? Any useful software available? Thanks!

I presume it's b/c you want the image w/o the text, not the text w/o the image? You say "copy" (not cut) but then "extract'. People do manage to erase logos, text overlays, etc. from jpegs & can see in principle how its done: "select" the text & remove. Once the image is jpeg the "info" that might allow access to a layer is lost.
Selection tools in PE & similar are getting more clever all the time but for the moment its tedious work afaik. Your idea seems to be if you have the font, just type over, etc. I know of nothing that does that, & more important, you are left w/ a hole where you extracted. In jpeg any hole becomes white. Do you mean to now go back and fill the hole? It's done, but even more tedious than the extraction.

[Brecht]

Originally Posted by ConstantOgler

I presume it's b/c you want the image w/o the text, not the text w/o the image? You say "copy" (not cut) but then "extract'. People do manage to erase logos, text overlays, etc. from jpegs & can see in principle how its done: "select" the text & remove. Once the image is jpeg the "info" that might allow access to a layer is lost.
Selection tools in PE & similar are getting more clever all the time but for the moment its tedious work afaik. Your idea seems to be if you have the font, just type over, etc. I know of nothing that does that, & more important, you are left w/ a hole where you extracted. In jpeg any hole becomes white. Do you mean to now go back and fill the hole? It's done, but even more tedious than the extraction.

I have a couple of magazine scans (not porn) in French and need a way to copy the text in order to translate it. An example of what those scans look like can be seen in the first picture ulitka posted. I came across a few online OCR sites but the results were bad.

[ConstantOgler]

Originally Posted by Norbert84

I have a couple of magazine scans (not porn) in French and need a way to copy the text in order to translate it. An example of what those scans look like can be seen in the first picture ulitka posted. I came across a few online OCR sites but the results were bad.

I have very same thing on my agenda, but not near the top. "Image file" is ambiguous. I think ulitka maybe even understates it. IOW dark text on white has got to be doable (maybe not for free, yet?). I would make a file just of that part. maybe pdf that file to get the power of a good pdf reader. Text overlaid on a photo much harder, you are back to my previous post, I believe.

P.S. When you do get to use a translator, let us know which one is not too bad.

[Brecht]

Originally Posted by ConstantOgler

I have very same thing on my agenda, but not near the top. "Image file" is ambiguous. I think ulitka maybe even understates it. IOW dark text on white has got to be doable (maybe not for free, yet?). I would make a file just of that part. maybe pdf that file to get the power of a good pdf reader. Text overlaid on a photo much harder, you are back to my previous post, I believe.

P.S. When you do get to use a translator, let us know which one is not too bad.

I tried to convert the image files to PDF some time ago without any success. Even forgot the name of the program I used because I removed it afterwards.

[pigulici]

The best software for me to do ocr was Abby Finereader, used with english and romanian jpg/bmp files, although not 100% right, after processing I manual read again...