Honey, I shrunk the PDF
CVision has announced advanced image compression techniques have been integrated into a new version of its PDFCompressor scanning software, which now offers realtime optical character recognition (OCR) for the first time.
High speed scanning capability has been enhanced with the development of new compression technology that can reduce storage and transmission requirements for scanned PDF images by up to 100x.
The Windows application has been developed for high volume scanning applications, and CVision claims that PDFCompressor is able to OCR and compress five pages per second.
It incorporates JBIG2 and JPEG2000 compression techniques to compress typical black and white document scans by a factor of 5-10x (compared to TIF G4) and colour scans by a factor of 10-100x (compared to JPEG).
For example, a 36MB TIF photograph will normally convert to standard PDF of around the same size using Adobe Acrobat, or a 14MB JPEG file using image compression. The same 36MB TIF will reduce to a 2MB PDF using CVision PDFCompressor, with no loss in image quality.
Resulting PDFs can be viewed using Adobe's standard PDF Reader and archived with PDF/A compliance.
PDFCompressor can process paper-based documents in realtime, accelerating the entire workflow. It also includes support for multidirectional and low contrast text, with the addition of ICR, for handwritten text, and barcodes.
It provides a single step workflow to achieve image processing, realtime OCR, advanced compression. PDF/A, Bates stamping, PDF options settings, Web-optimisation, batch multi-threading and encryption.
Other functions include batch processing and the ability to setup Watch folders for automated workflows, with blank page detection/removal.
Pricing is volume based. A single license to process 1000 pages a month begins at $500 which includes OCR, while 25,000 pages a month is $4000.
CVision PDFCompressor is distributed in Australia by Scan Conversion Services, and also integrated into the company's scanning software, DVScan.