Kurzweil 3000 and High Speed Scanners



Kurzweil 3000 and High Speed Scanners

By David Bradburn

Contact information: David Bradburn

Kurzweil Educational Systems, Inc.

100 Crosby Drive

Bedford, MA 01730

Direct: 781.276.0602

Cell: 978.590.0289

E-mail: david@

1. Introduction

The purpose of this document is to outline the use of a high speed scanner in conjunction with Kurzweil 3000 and OEM scanning software.

The scanner featured in this document is the Canon DR-2580C, which I purchased at for approximately $630, plus an additional $500 on the flatbed scanner option. The 2580C is a duplex scanner, which means it is capable of scanning both sides of a sheet simultaneously; by contrast, a non-duplex scanner (simplex) can only scan one side at a time.

|[pic] |The DR-2580C is not only one of the smallest scanners in its |

| |class at a mere 4.2 lbs, but also one of the most easy-to-use.|

| |Built to boost productivity, the DR-2580C scans at a rapid |

| |rate of 25 pages or 50 images per minute (letter/200 |

| |dpi/portrait). It's versatile document handling capabilities |

| |make the DR-2580C an ideal solution to handle the diverse |

| |imaging needs of any busy office. Scan plastic ID cards with |

| |its Straight Path feeding mechanism. |

|Fig. 1: Canon DR-2580C scanner | |

|[pic] |The flatbed option for the DR-2580C adds additional |

| |versatility to your scanner. The flatbed can scan an 8 1/2 by |

| |11 inch document. The flatbed is easy to install to your |

| |existing DR2580C scanner. This flatbed must be hooked to the |

| |DR2580C scanner. It will not work as a standalone flatbed |

| |unit. |

|Fig. 2: Canon DR-2580C scanner with optional flat bed scanner | |

2. High Speed Scanning with Kurzweil 3000

As any seasoned Kurzweil 3000 veteran will tell you, high speed scanning is only possible with the Kurzweil 3000 for Windows, Professional Color (or Black & White) version 9.

Version 9 lets you scan double-sided pages, an option that is most appropriate for use with scanners that feature an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), such as that found on the Canon DR-2580C scanner.

If you are scanning single-sided documents with a scanner equipped with an Automatic Document Feeder, just ensure that the pages are placed correctly (text may need to be placed face down or face up depending upon the scanner model being used) and click the [pic] button or press the F9 key to start scanning. This is no different than scanning with a conventional flatbed scanner.

3: Document Preparation.

While single sheet scanning is simple enough to understand, what about books and other bound materials? The simple answer is that it will be necessary to cut the books up so that the pages are essentially spineless. Professional grade book/paper cutters, such as those available online at can cost many thousands of dollars. There are a range of manual paper cutters available (), but still cost anywhere from several hundred dollars to approximately $3,000. Therefore, if a paper cutter is not in your budget, try a local Kinko’s or Kwik-Kopy store to see if they can help.

4: Scanning your Document

Before you start, ask yourself this question: “Does the document I’m about to scan contain multiple chapters?” If yes, you should consider separating each chapter and scanning them one by one. If not, you run the risk of creating a document that is too large to easily share between computers or send via e-mail.

Note: if you are attempting to scan double-sided documents using a non-duplex scanner equipped with an ADF, please follow these instructions:

As defined earlier, a non-duplex scanner can only scan one side of a page at a time.

a) Load the double-sided pages into the scanner as directed by your scanner’s documentation.

b) From the Scan menu, select Double Sided.

c) Click the Scan button, or select Start New Scan from the Scan menu.

Scanning begins. After the stack of pages has been scanned, Kurzweil 3000 prompts you to flip the stack over.

d) Flip the stack of pages over, and place it back on the feeder with the last page on top, then click OK.

When all the pages have been scanned, Kurzweil 3000 collates the pages and adds them to either a new file or a file that you have previously opened.

To scan double-sided documents using a duplex scanner:

As defined earlier, Duplex scanners can scan both sides of a page at one time.

a) Load the double-sided pages into the scanner as directed by your scanner’s documentation.

b) From the Scan menu, select Double Sided.

c) Click the Scan button, or select Start New Scan from the Scan menu.

d) Scanning begins and the pages are added to either a new file or a file that you have previously opened.

5: Saving your Document.

To save a file:

Click the Save button on the tool bar.

[pic]

Alternatively, from the File menu, choose Save.

The first time you save a file, the Save As dialog box lets you choose how and where to save it.

After you have saved a file for the first time, Kurzweil 3000 saves the file automatically when you click the Save button, or select Save from the File menu. It keeps the same name and file type unless you use the Save As command on the File menu to save to a new file.

6: Zone Editing & Edit Underlying Text

Zone editing allows you to specify how Kurzweil 3000 handles blocks of text, or zones, in an image document.

If you are a teacher, you can use zone editing to change the order in which portions of text are read, or to eliminate some portions. For example, it may be helpful to your students if you designate photo captions, graphs, sidebars and page numbers as secondary text, which Kurzweil 3000 reads only when a reader clicks on it.

Using the Zone Editor, you can:

• Change the properties and reading order of zones.

• Adjust the size of a zone to determine how much text it encloses.

• Add new zones.

• Delete zones (removes the zone definition and the underlying text, but not the image you see on the screen).

• Delete All Zones.

To perform zone editing functions, first switch to zone edit view from within the Scan menu, then use the Zone Editor from the right mouse button menu to perform the tasks you want. Once zone editing is complete, return to the Scan menu to exit zone edit view.

Scanned documents as well as documents you open using the KESI Virtual Printer are image files. The software recognizes text in these documents and saves it as underlying text. In some instances text can be misrecognized, causing Kurzweil 3000 to read words improperly. When this happens, you might wish to edit the underlying text to correct the mistake.

To edit the underlying text of an image document:

a) Open an image document that you want to edit.

b) From the Edit menu, choose Correct Recognition, then Edit Underlying Text.

Kurzweil 3000 enters Edit Underlying Text mode and the underlying text editing window opens below the current document.

[pic]

Fig 3.

The scrollable editing window displays one page of an image document’s underlying text at a time. When you click on a word in the editing window, Kurzweil 3000 highlights the word in both the window and in the document. Likewise, if you click on a word in the document, it becomes highlighted in both places. Also, the word you click appears in the Selected Word box at the bottom of the editing window.

c. To move to a different page, use the Page navigation control in the Reading toolbar, or the commands in the View menu’s Page submenu.

d. Click on a word that you want to edit.

e. Click the Read button to hear the word read and confirm that this is the word you want to correct.

f. Click in the Selected Word box and edit the word to correct the misrecognition.

g. Click Read to confirm your correction.

h. Click OK to leave Edit Underlying Text mode and apply your corrections.

7: Scanning with Capture Perfect 3.0

Capture Perfect 3.0 is the latest version (as of this writing) of Canon’s scanning software for use with the Canon DR line of scanners. Once you start the program, you are presented with the following screen.

[pic]

Fig. 4

|At this point, it will first be necessary to set up Capture Perfect to work with your scanner. Since |[pic] |

|settings will vary from scanner model to scanner model, these instructions should only be applied with the|Fig. 5 |

|Canon DR-2580C scanner. To check settings, click on the Scanner Setting button: | |

|[pic] Fig. 6 |The settings you’ll want to |

| |set include: |

| | |

| |Mode: choose black and white |

| |or 24-bit color |

| | |

| |Scanning Side: choose Duplex, |

| |Simples or Flatbed |

| | |

| |Batch Separation: |

| |Choose None or Auto |

Now you’re ready to scan.

8: Step-By-Step Instructions

a) Place sheets of text on the ADF or a single sheet on the flat bed scanner. In the case of the Canon DR-2580C, the text should be facing upright with page 1 on top.

b) Click on the Scan Batch to File button, which is located to the immediate right of the Scanner Setting button.

[pic]

Fig. 7

c) The Scan Batch to File Setting box appears on the screen.

|[pic] Fig. 8 |The settings you’ll want to |

| |set include: |

| | |

| |Save in: |

| |Specify the location where |

| |scanned images are to be |

| |stored |

| | |

| |File name: give your file a |

| |name |

| | |

| |Save as type: choose TIFF or |

| |PDF File |

| | |

| |MultiPage Settings: |

| |Choose Multi Page (All Pages) |

d) Next click the Save button.

e) Scanning will commence at this point.

f) Once scanning is complete, the Continue Scanning dialog box appears:

[pic] Fig. 9

At this point, you should either click the Continue Scanning button to scan more pages or click the Stop Scanning button to end scanning and preview your document.

Remember: all you have done at this point is create an image document. You still have to run the document through Kurzweil 3000 optical character recognition (OCR) before you’ll be ready to edit zones or underlying text.

g) Having clicked the Stop Scanning button, our document is visible on screen.

[pic] Fig. 10

At this point, you can select File menu, Exit, to leave the program.

h) You have successfully converted your print document into a multi-page TIFF file (.tif) format.

9: Automater

Okay, so you’ve managed to scan in a document and now you want to convert it into a Kurzweil 3000 (.kes) file. If the file you’d like to convert is a TIFF (.tif) or PDF (.pdf) file, just open the document from within Kurzweil 3000 and it will be recognized and converted automatically for you. Once recognition is complete, all that remains to be done is zone and underlying text editing and the saving of your document (see part 6).

But if you’re using a high-speed scanner to scan large amounts of documents and books that will be used in Kurzweil 3000, the Kurzweil 3000 Automater can save you time. It automates the conversion of TIFF files (from the CapturePerfect scanning process) into Kurzweil 3000 "KES" files.

You will need the files K3Automater.exe and K3Automater.hlp from the Extras folder on the Kurzweil 3000 product CD; copy them to a folder of your choice on your hard drive.

The general steps for using the Kurzweil 3000 Automater are:

a) Run K3Automater.exe. The Automater dialog box opens. Notice that for convenience of teaching this topic, the Source and Destination folders have been placed on the Desktop.

[pic]

Fig. 11

b) In the Source Hierarchy box, specify the complete path name where the TIFF files are located. This should be the same place where you chose to save them during scanning in CapturePerfect (see part 8).

c) In the Destination Hierarchy box, specify the complete path name where you want the converted KES files to be placed. This is the folder where Kurzweil 3000 will save your converted documents for you.

d) Specify any command arguments you want. See Specifying Command Arguments below.

e) Click the OK button.

f) Use the Cancel button to close the dialog box when you are finished using the Automater.

Kurzweil 3000 Automater finds the TIFF files – one by one – in the folders contained in the source hierarchy, and looks for the corresponding KES files under the destination hierarchy. If the corresponding KES file is not found, the Kurzweil 3000 is run to recognize the TIFF file and place the resulting KES file in the appropriate folder in the destination hierarchy. If a destination subfolder does not exist, the Automater creates one.

When the Automater has finished converting all of the specified TIFF files into KES files, it waits for the next "job". You do not have to restart it. Every few seconds, it checks for additional files to convert.

Specifying the Kurzweil 3000 Command Line Arguments

Command arguments further automate the process of bringing documents into Kurzweil 3000, saving you time and effort. They enable you to tell Kurzweil 3000 more specifically how to create the KES files.

When you first open the Kurzweil 3000 Automater dialog box, the Command Arguments are: "-in:^S –out^D –x" where ^S and ^D represent the source and the destination hierarchies, respectively. During the conversion process, the complete path and file name of the TIFF file replaces ^S and the complete path and file name of the KES file replaces ^D. -x causes the Kurzweil 3000 to exit after processing.

You must use this syntax in the command line: -in:^S -out:^D -x

The optional command arguments are as follows:

· -user: to set the user name if you are in a multi-user environment.

· -d to delete the previous "-in:" file. The file must be in TIFF format/

· -2page to recognize two page scanned images.

· -autorotate to enable auto rotation.

· -rotate0 to disable autorotate.

· -despeckle to enable despeckling.

· -nodespeckle to disable despeckling.

10: Description of the Automater Dialog Box

The Kurzweil 3000 Automater dialog box consists of the following:

[pic]

Fig. 12

- Source Hierarchy field for specifying the folder from which you want the Automater to pick up the TIFF files.

- Destination Hierarchy field for specifying the document to which you want to place the converted KES files.

- Log Activity checkbox and field. By default the Log Activity is checked. Specify the file in which you want the Automater to place the log activity. Having the log activity file enables you to review what files the Automater converted.

- The Browse button in each of the above three areas enables you to find and specify the folder or file.

- Command Arguments field for specifying what additional task you want Kurzweil 3000 to perform on the converted files. See Specifying Command Arguments.

- A Status field lets you know what the Automater is working on.

- The Log Activity area displays the Automater’s activity log.

- The OK button starts the Automater.

- The Cancel button exits the Automater.

[pic]

Fig. 13: Automater is waiting for work. Note that command argument “user:David” has been selected; this is because Kurzweil 3000 is set up for multiple users on my computer and specifying “user:David” ensures that the appropriate user or other settings are used.

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