Where Textgrabber + Translator and Image to Text – OCR differ is the mechanism for delivering the converted text. ABBYY’s Textgrabber does the character recognition directly on the phone, and immediately offers the text. One then has many options for moving it: email, text-message, and Facebook are three of the eight options. Image to Text, on the other hand, functions completely differently. Once a photo has been taken or selected, the user is presented with two options: Send by E-Mail or Send to Evernote (Evernote is a free note taking and organizing app for smartphones and computers). No matter which option is chosen, there is about a 30 second delay until you receive the converted text. There is also some awkwardness when choosing the email option as it presents you with a new email window where you must type in the recipient’s email address and send what appears to be a blank email (the subject is filled in by Image to Text). I give Textgrabber the advantage here as it offers more choices for sharing/moving the text, as well as keeping the entire process more streamlined and neat inside the app.
None of this is important if the quality of the conversion is poor, however. There’s no point to running OCR if you still have to go back and edit every other word. I went into this expecting the paid app to be significantly more effective than the free alternative. I was wrong. With identical situations replicated between two phones, Image to Text – OCR actually proved to be more accurate overall, albeit by a minor margin. Another bonus for Image to Text was that the emailed scans remained formatted similarly to how the actual photograph looked. Textgrabber maintained the formatting on the phone itself, but when the text is sent elsewhere, it becomes a solid block of text. Overall, for both conversion quality and converted text usefulness, Image to Text wins.
So why is this article featured in AE Monthly? The next time you’re at a book fair, instead of writing down notes of everything you’re interested in, why not snap a picture of the item as well as the seller’s business card? Or, if you’re more into the research side of the field, OCR the texts you need to cite and save yourself some time not retyping word for word. Books and technology aren’t peas in a pod, but there’s no reason not to take advantage when they work together.
ALDE, Apr. 8: GUEVARA (ANTONIO DE). Histoire de Marc-Aurèle, Empereur Romain, vray miroir et horloge des Princes. Paris, Pierre et Galliot du Pré, frères, 1565. €3,000 to €4,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: HEURES DE LA VIERGE. Horæ in laudem beatissimæ virginis Mariæ ad usum Romanum. Paris, Charles L'Angelier, 1556. €4,000 to €5,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: MONTAIGNE (MICHEL DE). Les Essais. Édition nouvelle, trouvée après le deceds de l'autheur… Paris, Abel L'Angelier, 1595. €6,000 to €8,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: [ROJAS (FERNANDO DE)]. Celestina, tragicomedia di Calisto et Melibea, tradotta de lingua castigliana in italiano idioma… Venise, 1531. €2,000 to €3,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: CAMÕES (LUÍS DE). Os Lusiadas. Lisbonne, Pedro Crasbeeck, 1613. €2,000 to €3,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Bruxelles, Roger Velpius & Huberto Antonio, 1611. €6,000 to €8,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: LA FONTAINE (JEAN DE). Fables choisies, mises en vers. Paris, Denys Thierry et Claude Barbin, 1678-1694. €6,000 to €8,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Madrid, Joaquin Ibarra, 1780. €3,000 to €4,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: DIDEROT (DENIS) ET JEAN LE ROND D'ALEMBERT. Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris, 1751-1765. €15,000 to €20,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. LAMARTINE (Alphonse de). Les Laboureurs. Poème tiré de Jocelyn… Lyon, J. A. Henry, 1883. €8,000 to €10,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. Livre de prières tissé d'après les enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe au XVIe siècle. Lyon, [A. Roux], 1886. €5,000 to €6,000.
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts & Objects from Three Important Collections Open for Bidding 2-17 April
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: [Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun]. Le Roman de la Rose, [Geneva or Lyons, c.1481], first printed edition of the most important medieval French vernacular poem. £200,000 to £300,000.
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Castiglione. Il libro del cortegiano. [Venice], April 1528, first edition, in a magnificent binding by Jean Picard for Jean Grolier. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Jacobus de Cessolis. Schachzabelbuch, Strasbourg, 1483, von der Lasa copy. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: World Championship, 1972. A collection of 84 press photographs of the famed match between Spassky and Fischer. £2,000 to £3,000.
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Ben Franklin. Autograph letter signed, to Lord Shelburne, British Prime Minister, during peace negotiations, November 1782. £15,000 to £20,000.
