User Guide

Sometimes ABBYY products may look like unlikely solutions for
some not very typical or unusual tasks. Indeed, why select
FormReader for processing forms, say, in Portuguese if
FormReader does not support this language? However,
FormReader can be effectively used even in cases similar to the
one above.
What if FormReader does not support a required language?
Suppose FormReader does not support the language you need to
recognize, e.g. Korean or Thai. Or forms are completed using cur
sive script and all letters are glued together. These situations have
one thing in common: the program cannot recognize the letters
in the fields, but the operator can read them. The following solu
tions can be recommended:
1. When designing a form, use as few text fields as possible:
replace them by check boxes or groups of check boxes.
Explanations to the check boxes (i.e. the wording of choices)
can be in any language since the program will not have to rec
ognize them.
2. Use digital fields and barcode fields  in most cases data
can be captured from such fields automatically.
3. Use the Key From Image (KFI) technique. In ABBYY
FormReader 6.0 this option is called "manual input fields",
because the operator enters data in such fields manually. The
program will display the images of data fields, so that the oper
ator may read the information from these fields and enter it
into a database. Note that this does not diminish the other
important advantages of automated forms processing:
 All the relationships linking the data fields and the fields in the
database have been carefully though out in advance and are
defined in the form template  the operator does not need to
rack his brains trying to find out in which field to enter this or
that piece of information;
 The operator does not have to divide his attention between the
paper document, the keyboard and the computer screen;
 Data can still be validated using automatic validation rules, how
ever complex and sophisticated  it makes no difference to the
program whether the information to be validated was captured
automatically or typed in manually.
Therefore, using KFI or manual input fields is still much more con
venient and produces more accurate results than pure manual
typing.
Using ABBYY Technologies to Solve
Untypical Tasks
Using ABBYY Technologies to Solve Untypical Tasks
Even if FormReader does not support the language of the document to be recognized, it nevertheless can greatly speed up data entry.
Sample Korean form.