Wizcom SuperPen

Optical character recognition (OCR) software has been steadily improving for the past few years, to the point where it is now possible to scan typed documents and get a pretty good electronic transcription. Wizcom's SuperPen builds on the company's earlier translating and scanning pens, but this one promises to do both.

It translates scanned text or for English text, speaks the words. It can also scan text directly to a word-processing program or into its own address book, which is good for scanning business cards. It's easy to use, but it takes time to master the art of scanning correctly. As you might expect, the SuperPen is limited to scaning standard typefaces (no handwriting) and dark text on light (preferably white) backgrounds. Even with a careful scan, the pen often misreads words or letters, particularly with small text.

If you're spending this much money, you should be able to scan without having to fix all the mistakes. While the SuperPen is powerful and has some interesting features, it is let down by its poor performance.

Scanning Pens 0870 041 2302
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