ABBYY FineReader 6 Professional review

You have the choice of a one-button automatic process from scan/load image through to exporting the recognised document or you can use the Scan and Read Wizard. The latter means you can familiarise yourself with the process as it happens. One problem we found was that the Wizard asks you to estimate the accuracy of the result, but you can't actually scroll the result window to see the whole page.

Recently, form handling has been increasingly expected as a standard feature in OCR packages and FineReader isn't an exception. However, to access the ABBYY FormFiller application you must first register the FineReader software. Registration also earns access to community-based online support.

For £162, a Corporate Edition is also available if you require distributed document handling and network installation. This version is also optimised for recognising business cards and barcodes.

Overall, ABBYY FineReader 6 Professional is an impressive package that is significantly superior to the current, more expensive market leader, ScanSoft OmniPage Pro 11.

Author: Ian Burley