Text Converter

[sharktm]

First off Im not really sure if this belongs here, if it doesnt I apologize. I, like most of you do, enjoy using fountain pens. I enjoy journaling and writing small things. Lately I have been dabbling in writing some short stories. I enjoy writing out as much as I can by hand before I start to type everything into word, my question is because I type everything on my iPad is there an app that I can use to take a photo of what I have written and have it converted to a text file? Or at least something that I can copy and paste into word. Something so that I dont have to painstaking type out everything that I have written. I greatly appreciate the help.

[Qoan]

You might want to look for an OCR app. I don't have any device by Apple so I can't help you with specific ones, but there are also many websites that will OCR a document (with varying results) for free or for a low fee.

Now, be aware that most of these only work properly with standard typefaces. As a translator, I frequently use OCR to get codes, numbers and sometimes even page layout easily into my computer, but I've noticed that it almost never works with handwritten parts of the texts. It might work, though, if you have a very clear and regular hand while writing. I'm not aware of any OCR developed specifically for handwritten texts, but you may as well check that.

[Karmachanic]

Speech to text perhaps?

[BaronWulfraed]

Pure OCR (scan/photo -> text) tends not to work well with cursive hands. The only information they have to work with is the letter outlines and cursive, besides individual variation, doesn't separate the letters (is that the tail of a lowercase b or is it a blended lr pair).

 

My antique PDA, however, had an input mode that did attempt to convert cursive to text -- but not after the fact! One scribbled on the LCD panel and the software takes both the "image" AND the stroke directions to map to correct letters -- doing the conversion during pauses between words.

 

The rubbery input methods on tablets these days is not conducive to that -- needs the harder nylon tips of PDA stylus.