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DESCRIPTION
Readiris Pro is the most powerful and accurate OCR software for Mac OS X. It accurately and rapidly transforms your paper documents, your PDFs and images files into editable information ready to be use.
Completely redesigned for Mac OS X, Readiris Pro offers an easy to use user interface, which clearly guides you through the recognition steps. Extremely powerful, Readiris Pro exactly recreates the original format of your documents and replaces columns of text, tables, and graphics in the output file.
A large choice of output formats allows you to choose the format that best suits your needs. You can recreate a document in word processors or in spreadsheet programs, to get indexed PDF files with both the image and the text or to easily create web pages thanks to the WYSIWYG HTML output format.
WHAT'S NEW
Version 12.0.1: - Scanning with Image Capture scanners on Snow Leopard: scanners are not listed in the Preferences dialogue box list.
- Crash while using HPScan user interface on Snow Leopard.
- Missing access to the Character Palette from the Learning dialogue box.
REQUIREMENTS
Mac OS X 10.4 or later.
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| Readiris Pro User Reviews (37 posts) | Write A Review |
 | Oct 23 2009 |
B3NT I agree with DTRUETT1 on Readiris customer experience. I have received barrages of emails hawking their products since I bought Readiris 11. Then they sent out a notice of a new version 12, but offered no upgrade discount. I contacted their support and got a response offering a satisfactory upgrade discount, but then when I placed my order I could not download the product. They 'dropped' my first request for support for a product I had just purchased. They never really responded to my followup. They did ask for my USPS address though I don't know why... no disc ever came in the mail. It took a full two weeks from order (9/23/09) to successful download (10/07). It also appears if I ever buy a new computer I will have to re-contact Readiris, assuming they're still in business, to get a new 'key' to install it on a new computer. I do not recommend Readiris.
(Version 12.0) | |
| [ 1 Reply - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| Nov 5 2009 |
FAIRMEADOW I had an early version of ReadIris 11. So early that it never actually worked. All contact with their support regarding how to update this to a later maintenance release of RI 11 were ignored, apart from one response that told me to use the check for updates menu item - which was missing from that version. Nevertheless (after all, lightening doesn't strike twice, does it?), I went for the upgrade to 12. I bought on-line, and got the download. But nowhere was there a serial number, so I couldn't run it. Sent a mail, but no response. Suddenly a disc arrived by courier (no, I'd only ordered the download version!). Lots of paperwork, but still no serial number. Write again to Iris, and this time an answer - an apology and a serial number. Wonderful, except that the serial number was rejected as invalid. I replied, and was asked whether it was serial number or key I wanted. I sent the screenshot confirming that it asked for a serial number. Despite several further e-mails to them I've had nothing further. I guess it's getting close to time to consider a legal approach.
(Version 12.0.1) | |
| Sep 10 2009 |
JIMW While this product has always seemed to me to be a bit flaky and its registration procedure procedure quite complex and medieval, it also, as far as I know is about the only game in town currently available for individual users that want to do OCR. Most if not all the rest are no longer in development for the Mac, in worse condition that Readiris (functionality and/or support), or are targeted for enterprise users. If I am incorrect about this would somebody please post a reply to enlighten me as I have been searching for a viable alternative for years but so far have not found one. That said, at this time I note the following: The upgrade has been announced on MacUpdate but as a registered user for many years I have so far received no notice from the company about this upgrade (09/10/09). I have checked out the more info on MacUpdate and the corporate website but so far seen no mention of an upgrade price for previous users of Readiris 11. So far the only upgrade is to buy it again at full price (09/10/09).
(Version 12.0) | |
| [ 6 Replies - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| Sep 10 2009 |
MARTINBB I note that DevonTHINK is now using the ABBYY Finereader engine for its built-in OCR. I'm not sure what this indicates, but it might mean that they think it is the best of the available options. Then again, it might just mean they have made an advantageous deal with ABBYY :-)
(Version 12.0) | |
| Sep 10 2009 |
MARTINBB PS: incidentally, like the previous poster, I cannot for the life of me work out whether there is actually an upgrade path. It certainly doesn't look like it. And in the past, when I have tried to update to newer versions, I have found it impossible. Nor, in my experience, is the program particularly good to use. I would certainly recommend looking for something better.
(Version 12.0) | |
| Sep 10 2009 |
CURLYPAWS I'd suggest looking at Abbyy FineReader Express as mentioned above. I've found it to be a far better OCR package than the previous version of ReadIris, it doesn't have an artificial 50 page PDF limit and I also found the inability to upgrade the program normally to be very annoying with ReadIris (although their support were helpful when contacted - so long as i could provide proof of purchase).
(Version 12.0) | |
| Sep 10 2009 |
CHRISCHRAM I'm recalling how difficult it was upgrading to version 11, and then the subsequent bugfixes. If the older version still works with Snow Leopard (haven't tried yet), Ill be sticking with that one. If they send me an attractive upgrade offer, maybe I'll reconsider.
(Version 12.0) | |
| Sep 10 2009 |
ZORRO I use Adobe Acrobat Professional for OCR.
(Version 12.0) | |
| Sep 22 2009 |
JIMW Today I did receive an upgrade offer from IRIS - Upgrade for $99. By offering the upgrade to registered at this price they certainly express their perspective of the concept of "fair and reasonable" pricing for upgrades and their interest in customer loyalty and retention. However in a arena that seems to lack viable competition, they most likely can get away with it for the time being.
(Version 12.0) | |
 | Nov 22 2008 |
SURFSPIRIT Readirirs Pro is Slow and outdated, it mostly find text as images not doing any ocr, so is very trouble to work with it. I have found Adobe Acrobat Pro that does OCR very well, so to every mac user that is searching for an OCR App, try Adobe Acrobat Pro, OCR is very accurate and fast! One big advantage from Adobe Acrobat Pro is that the original image is always shown, when you do a text selection it pastes the OCR copy, so even if the OCR has some mistakes you can see what´s the mistake when looking to the screen original image.
(Version 11.6.2) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Feb 11 2009 |
NEALNT I have version 11.6.6. It crashes anytime you try to do more than one scan. I have a Canon 8400F. I have the twain driver. I have been complaining to IRIS for months. They have not been responsive. I asked for my money back. Again no response. I have a Mac pro Intel os 10.5.6
(Version 11.6.3) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Sep 28 2009 |
B3NT You can get an upgrade discount... I asked and was given the promo code "free4" to enter to get the upgrade from RI Pro 11 to RI Pro 12 for only $60. BUT... I have had major problems downloading the 230MB file from RI servers, and have had a significant 'go round' with RI Support. I think they are finally going to mail me a copy on CD because I can't download it. Interestingly, the download stalls every time at exactly 137.4MB... on several Macs.
(Version 12.0) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Dec 9 2008 |
AIKOUSHA Back again, since I'm still in search of the elusive working OCR package for the Mac. Don't know if this works well on Windows, but I'll probably learn that soon, as given a choice for a wireless laptop, I'm probably going with windows so I can use both a Mac and Windows (for those few things that still can't be done on a Mac). Too bad the guy I met last time I tested this software no longer works at the store. I actually tested version 11.6.3 , funny that it's not available on MacUpdate, yet... Don't be dismayed, this program has ALL the problems it had the last time I reviewed it. The only thing it seems to have different is a bunch of links to SANE to attempt to get older scanners to work with the OCR. It's too bad that when I finally jumped through the hoops to get SANE installed (took over two hours of installs, component searches, code compiles, and restarts, before that was going), SANE worked, but no matter what I did, Readiris recognized SANE, but still couldn't access my scanner. So, using this required that I scan through Photoshop or VueScan, and then read the files in Readiris. Painful and time-consuming, but at least I don't lose the "scans" when Readiris INEVITABLY crashes. No matter what, I cannot recognize more than 3 pages at a time... Guaranteed crash. It still doesn't recognize common type, consistently misinterpreting scratches, unable to understand baselines, periods, colons, semicolons, hyphens, em-dashes, etc., identical to the last time. So, again, I can't recommend this, and unless you absolutely have to have it for work, I'd stay away from it, and the company. For those looking for a kanji based OCR (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, etc.), DON'T EVEN BOTHER. According to their website, it doesn't exist for the Mac, hasn't for quite a while, and I'm guessing won't be available for years. (So, what were they selling before? Vaporware?). A SUGGESTION FOR READIRIS: Save all the recognized material to a file that acts like a log, instead of waiting for the entire process to complete before writing to an output file, that way, when the program crashes, you only have to start where the log file ends! Also, USE the splines from an actual typeface in order to learn the shapes that are scanned. Most people have the most commonly used typefaces, and businesses often purchase the typefaces they need for the documents they scan (in order to reproduce them exactly), so this should be an easy thing to implement and use... assuming you code in-house, and aren't just absconding with the work of others.
(Version 11.6.2) | |
| [ 3 Replies - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| Aug 10 2009 |
ICONZ113 have u tried Abbyy finereader for mac? It doesn't show up on macupdate.com but I think that company is a little more established. I could be wrong though.
(Version 11.6.4) | |
| Aug 29 2009 |
SJK MacUpdate does list ABBYY FineReader Express now. Generally looks like a superior alternative to Readiris Pro.
(Version 11.6.4) | |
| Aug 31 2009 |
KOIBITO-SAN Thanks for letting us know (me and others). As soon as I have a trial copy and a Mac that isn't mine, I'll be giving that one a test drive. I'm still in search of the elusive kanji compliant OCR. I heard that the new Windows-Only Omnipage 17 now has it. Might have to pick up a cheap laptop if that's true.
(Version 11.6.4) | |
| Sep 14 2008 |
Q00P To start with, buying this software gets you an email stating: Your software key is XXXX Please note that this software key will not work if you reinstall your software, you can ask a new software key when needed through our customer service: - for North America: supportusa@irislink.com - for other countries: support@irislink.com Eh? What? We need to ask for a new key on reinstall? Okay, fine! Stupid, but let's install the software since we paid for it... I am sorry but, having used this software in a business setting for 7 months, we would like to let you know that this is NOT WORTH PAYING FOR. We have struggled all the time, and finally we saw the light. The computer crashed and we needed to reinstall OS X from scratch, plus all applications. Starting Readiris it asks for the software key. Hm, bugger! Mailing support@irislink.com for a key. 24 hours later, STILL NO KEY! As a business we are stranded until we get another key. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!
(Version 11.6.2) | |
| [ 1 Reply - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| Sep 10 2009 |
Don't hold your breath waiting for email. I have been through this issue several times with the developers and they don't reply to email. Calling them on the phone is the only way to get a response and that's iffy, usually taking three or more tries. Don't bother with this developer's product. It will cost you too much for support.
(Version 12.0) | |
| Mar 13 2008 |
K0GG I click to download a demo, fill in my email and country and I am taken to some flash demos that say I get a special offer if I watch them. I then get an email saying, " You recently requested a flash demo about Readiris Pro 11 features." NO I DID NOT, I wanted to download a demo of the application. If you don't do one, don't offer one. The offer is $59.99-US/Canada, EUR99.99-Rest of World = GBP76.60 or $155.51. What type of special offer is it that insultingly, over charges the Rest of the World? You can keep your product and your 'special' offer insult.
(Version 11.6.2) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Oct 21 2009 |
DTRUETT1 I have not used the product, for reasons below. I do feel the need to comment on the approach this company takes. If it's inappropriate here, I apologize, but think those of us who use MacUpdate regularly have opinions about how companies and individuals relate to their customer base. My experience is getting an Email somehow promoting ReadIris Pro 12. I was interested in OCR software, and took a look. Watched their two Flash demos and used the link to download a trial, only to find that first I needed to provide an Email address. OK, that's a warning sign for me, but I did it anyway. Got back a link - to watch the videos again. I went to the contacts link and described the situation and asked for a response on how I could download their software for evaluation. I have done this now three times, probably out of stubbornness and curiosity. No reply in two weeks and the "deadline" for the offer keeps moving. Makes me have a warm and fuzzy feeling to all of the smaller developers I support with my money, and the best of the larger ones, such as OmniGroup. I see no developer comments here, so I guess they don't monitor MacUpdate. It seems like the "brute force" strategy of marketing - push out a zillion Emails rather than focusing on their customer base. Roxio springs to mind, with the constant updating of small features and barrage of solicitations to upgrade at a discount. Anyway, rant over. I'm going to give ExactScan and VueScan a whirl, as I can actually download a demo from them.
(Version 12.0) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Feb 28 2008 |
JIMW If it does not seem to work with your scanner and you are using Leopard or Tiger on an Intel Mac-- Try doing a ;'Get Info' on the app and checking the 'Rosetta' Box. It worked for me.
(Version 11.6.2) | |
| [ 1 Reply - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| Oct 14 2008 |
SINGLETON JIMW If it does not seem to work with your scanner and you are using Leopard or Tiger on an Intel Mac-- Try doing a ;'Get Info' on the app and checking the 'Rosetta' Box. It worked for me. Thanks for your help. This worked for me as well. I was totally frustrated before finding your solution.
(Version 11.6.2) | |
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