Wordfast Anywhere announces support for scanned PDFS
Thread poster: Kristyna Marrero
Kristyna Marrero
Kristyna Marrero  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 23:09
Apr 4, 2011

Hi All,

We are excited to announce a new release of Wordfast Anywhere which offers users the ability to upload scanned (dead) PDFs and convert them to RTF for translation. This is achieved using server-side OCR technology. To the best of our knowledge, WFA is now the only major professional TM tool offering support for scanned PDFs.

Wordfast Anywhere is the world's leading web-based translation memory tool. It is offered free to all translators. As always, all con
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Hi All,

We are excited to announce a new release of Wordfast Anywhere which offers users the ability to upload scanned (dead) PDFs and convert them to RTF for translation. This is achieved using server-side OCR technology. To the best of our knowledge, WFA is now the only major professional TM tool offering support for scanned PDFs.

Wordfast Anywhere is the world's leading web-based translation memory tool. It is offered free to all translators. As always, all content that you upload remains completely confidential inside of your private, password-protected workspace. We invite you to try Wordfast Anywhere today at www.FreeTM.com.

Thank you to all Wordfast users. Your continued support and feedback has been invaluable in guiding our development efforts.

Sincerely,

Kristyna Marrero
Director of Sales & Marketing
Wordfast LLC
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Nikita Kobrin
Nikita Kobrin  Identity Verified
Lithuania
Local time: 05:09
Member (2010)
English to Russian
+ ...
Has anybody tried this option already? Apr 4, 2011

Kristyna Marrero wrote:

We are excited to announce a new release of Wordfast Anywhere which offers users the ability to upload scanned (dead) PDFs and convert them to RTF for translation. This is achieved using server-side OCR technology.


Has anybody tried this option already?

I seriously doubt Wordfast can do it on a proper level: currently even the best OCR programs are able to convert seamlessly scanned documents of only high quality and with simple layout. If the layout is complex or the quality of the scanned document is not high enough (which is often the case) the conversion involves pretty much of manual work which sometimes takes hours and even days...

NK


 
Stanislav Pokorny
Stanislav Pokorny  Identity Verified
Czech Republic
Local time: 04:09
English to Czech
+ ...
Tried it right now Apr 4, 2011

Hello Nik,
I've tried it right now: bunch of tags and incorrect segmentation at some places, good job somewhere else.

Not a bad result for a server-side OCR with no manual intervention, not a perfect result for translation though.

The document was pretty simple: a plain-text scan with no images or tables.


 
Nikita Kobrin
Nikita Kobrin  Identity Verified
Lithuania
Local time: 05:09
Member (2010)
English to Russian
+ ...
Unfortunately, not a remedy so far... Apr 4, 2011

Thanks for the quick response, Stanislav!

Stanislav Pokorny wrote:

Not a bad result for a server-side OCR with no manual intervention, not a perfect result for translation though.

The document was pretty simple: a plain-text scan with no images or tables.


So this is exactly what I expected (the same results one can get from ABBYY FineReader). Nothing new under the Sun...

NK

[Edited at 2011-04-04 20:27 GMT]


 
Milan Condak
Milan Condak  Identity Verified
Local time: 04:09
English to Czech
I've tried translate PDF without OCR Apr 4, 2011

Stanislav Pokorny wrote:

I've tried it right now: ...


I've tried it right now, too:

http://www.condak.net/wfa/20110404/cs/00.html

I printed HTM into PDF. I uploaded PDF into WFA, I translated English text into Czech, then downloaded RTF and printed it into PDF.

You can compare both PDFs. I was too lazy to find scanned PDF.

Milan


 
Stanislav Pokorny
Stanislav Pokorny  Identity Verified
Czech Republic
Local time: 04:09
English to Czech
+ ...
Nothing new, but... Apr 5, 2011

Nikita Kobrin wrote:
So this is exactly what I expected (the same results one can get from ABBYY FineReader). Nothing new under the Sun...

NK


Hi Nik,
nothing new under the Sun indeed, but it may be a good alternative for translators who don't want to spend money on a professional OCR tool. The results will probably be worse with more complex documents, but I still think that the WF Anywhere OCR is not bad as a free option.


 


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Wordfast Anywhere announces support for scanned PDFS







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