Handwriting to Text

G Haux

I have lots of letters that are hand written and I am wondering if there a way to upload a pdf that will convert the writing into text?

Randy Philpot

The following links will hopefully assist you in converting your pdf files of handwritten letters to text: 

 How to convert handwriting to text with OCR to PDF | Adobe Acrobat 

 Image to Text Made Simple - PDFSimpli 

 Pen to Print - Handwriting to Text Online OCR (pen-to-print.com) 

G Haux

@Randy Philpot

Thank you so much. I will take a look at these.

Dennis J Yancey

Id be interested in the accuracy of such software (which depends on the quality of the original being processed)

In my mind - best just to keep it in image/pdf format (handwriting).
You might end up with a converted document that is so rife with errors and garbage - this it will be more work than just typing it in from scratch.

also note ILOVEPDF will highly compress any pdf document - including the images of the actual handwriting.

In many cases I have gotten a pdf down to 1/10th the original file size. (thus putting you below the FamilySearch 15 MB Limit)

G Haux

@Dennis Yancey

Thank you for your thoughts. This will certainly be an interesting experiment.

Dennis J Yancey

https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/comment/554324#Comment_554324

let me know how it goes - but unless the orginal is in a very clearn crisp condition - I doubt you will get good results - and even then I still question how valuabe it will be.

whats wrong with just keeping it in handwriting format?

Dennis J Yancey

There are, however, some great VOICE to TEXT conversion tools.
You could READ it and software convert it to text.

G Haux

@Dennis J Yancey

I want to have another format so those who have not had practice reading cursive will still be able to connect with the history of these letters. I plan to connect the two together.

I could try and do the voice to text option. What are some ways to do that?

Family Bible

https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/comment/554731#Comment_554731

you can find plenty of speech to text software -

but if I were you I would try to find someone among your family or friends who already has some experience in using some and can coach you a bit.

you should also consider someone reading the text and coverting it to AUDIO

G Haux

@Family Bible

Thanks for your thoughts