Price/Platform: $9.99 (iOS)
Review Version: 4.1
Developer Website: http://www.creaceed.com/iprizmo
Features: Prizmo is a powerful scanner app with OCR engine, text-to-speech and translation capabilities. To start off, the app offers multiple options for input- you can use the device camera, import from camera roll, other apps, or use iOS document picker. If you scan using the camera, you can choose between preset modes(text, image, and card) and it has real-time page detection, speeding up the capturing process. After capturing the image, you can rotate, crop, adjust the coloring, and recognize text (run OCR). One of the features that really sets Primo apart from other OCR apps is that it recognizes text formatting and allows you to edit it in real time. If the text field doesn’t get recognized or you want to adjust it, you can add/delete text fields and add/edit descriptions to images. Once the file is all cleaned up, you can then use text to speech, translate the text (using Microsoft translation web service) or export the file as either a text file, PDF image, or searchable PDF. All of your scanned documents are displayed in a grid-like format and can be synced between devices via iCloud. The key to Prizmo, and any mobile OCR for that matter, is that the scanned image be as clear as possible and that the text be typeset. If it is not, then the OCR quality will be hit or miss. Also important to note is that the app will not recognize handwriting.
Summary: Prizmo is a powerful mobile OCR app that also has a easy to use scanner and formatting functionality.
Pro:
- Supports offline OCR mode that maintains the original image’s formatting
- Can export searchable PDF
Con:
- Searchable PDF text may be slightly out of line with the image
- Stability can be a problem especially when importing document into the app
How I use it: I use the app to perform OCR on the go! While I don’t normally use the app’s image capture mode, I regularly import PDFs to be OCRed. From there I send them to Voice Dream Reader for text-to-speech or Documents for annotation. The key to using the app, I have found, is to use a high quality scanner (like a desktop scanner or high pixel camera), and then import the document. The results tend to be much, much better then using the camera on my iPad 3.
In-App Purchases: The app offers multiple IAP ($2.99) for different text-to-speech voices.
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