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User profile for user: El Deanio
El Deanio Author
User level: Level 3
806 points

HP All-in-One Printer/Scanner OCR support

Several years ago (circa 2008) I bought an Hewlett Packard C7280 All-in-One Printer/Scanner/Fax machine. At the time of purchase HP supplied the driver software on a CD. That software combined printing, scanning, fax, and optical character recognition (OCR) so that I could scan documents and any text would be translated direct into Appleworks or Pages. The software was pretty good, particularly the OCR.


User uploaded file


Then, as you probably know, Apple had the great idea to have all printer drivers merge in with the OSX. I immediately lost all functions other than printing and scanning. Even the buttons on the front of the device stopped working and the device had to be controlled only by way of the Mac.


Over the intervening years Apple has sent various updates to the HP printer software for my machine so that almost all functions have come back again but it's taken aeons for this to happen. The most recent function to be restored I believe was the Fax function and that was several months ago now.


OCR, the function I miss the most, is still missing. I wonder if anyone has any 'insider knowledge' and can tell me if, or when, the OCR function on my device is likely to be restored? I realise that to incorporate all functions for all machines that have ever existed is a daunting task but, as several years have gone by, I now wonder if this project is now anywhere near completion?


There was a version of ReadIris 7 supplied on the HP Driver CD but that app. was awful, even when it worked. The HP built-in OCR function was much easier to use. Incidentally, now ReadIris 7 just quits with an error message so it's useless. I would guess that it is now no longer supported.


Message was edited by: El Deanio

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), iMac 24" 2.8ghz G6 Intel 750gb HDD, WD MyBook 2Tb RAID 1, Airpor

Posted on Aug 27, 2012 9:22 AM

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9 replies
User profile for user: ShlomiL
ShlomiL
User level: Level 3
774 points

Sep 8, 2012 9:01 AM in response to seventy one

Hi,

A Full Feature software solution for Snow Leopard is available at the HP site and contain OCR support integrated within the HP software.


You may download the software below:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=oj-74785-1 &cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&os=219&product=3204785&sw_lang=


Using the HP Scan application, make sure to scan using a Document Profile, after finishing the scan save the file by selecting any of the text file type (RTF, TXT, Searchable PDF).


You may find the instructions to use the HP Scan software below:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02456650&tmp_task=useCatego ry&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&os=219&product=3204785&softwareitem=oj-74785-1&sw_lang=


Regards,

Shlomi

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User profile for user: El Deanio
El Deanio Author
User level: Level 3
806 points

Sep 15, 2012 7:23 AM in response to ShlomiL

Sorry but i had to wait until I had plenty of time to sort out any problems.


Anyway, I downloaded the .dmg as suggested. The Installer was easy to use and it installed fine. I was a bit worried about whether or not I should de-install my existing version of HP Utility first. In the event I probably should have but I'm glad I didn't because it highlighted other issues such as the downloaded version of HP Utility being a much earlier version than the one I already had.


All went well until I used it for the first time. Immediately got an error message about 'Incompatible Components'.


User uploaded file


Tried a restart first to fix it. When this didn't work I considered that some of the files from the previous version of HP Utility must still be present, so I used the built in Uninstall option to de-install HP Utility and ran the downloaded installer once again.


Now I seem to have HP Utility 4.4.1 (my previous HPU was verion 5.2.4). Also my HP Photosmart Studio (v9.6.9) and other options have disappeared. Some may be in HP Scan I think (i.e. Scan to PDF).


HP Utility 4.4.1 initially detected my Photosmart C7280 but now it won't, even after a restart. Still trying to work this out. Have tried running HP Setup Assistant but this didn't fix it.

User uploaded file


I was able to use HPUtility 4.4.1 to set up HP Scan to appear in my Dock. HP Scan seems to be working okay so far and I have just worked out how to do my first OCR scan for ages. Terrific. Thanks for this. I haven't tried yet but the rest of the HP Scan features I am assuming will work okay too.


I would like to try to recover HP PhotoSmart Studio 9.6.9 if I can as I like the photo stitching software and one or two other of its features.


Message was edited by: El Deanio

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User profile for user: ShlomiL
ShlomiL
User level: Level 3
774 points

Sep 15, 2012 7:53 AM in response to El Deanio

Hi,

Don't try installing the HP Photosmart Studio 9.6, this is an earlier version which does not compatible with Snow Leopard...


You may install the HP Photosmart Studio version 9.8 which compatible with your operating system as well:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=mp-82172-1 &cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&os=219&product=3737195&sw_lang=


Regards,

Shlomi

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User profile for user: El Deanio
El Deanio Author
User level: Level 3
806 points

Sep 15, 2012 9:09 AM in response to ShlomiL

Perfect!! Worked straight off - as would be expected of course.


It's even found all my old folders and files. Excellent.


Still haven't worked out why HP Utility can't see my C7280, but it doesn't seem to matter. It's in Systems Prefs okay so maybe that's all that is necessary. So, it turns out that I was required to backtrack to an earlier version of HP U to restore OCR. Oh well, I don't mind. As long as it now works, who cares?


Anyway, the OCR is working now and I've just made a lovely panoramic of my office with the new version of Studio. I'm really impressed with this.


Thank you very much for your help Shlomi. 🙂

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User profile for user: El Deanio
El Deanio Author
User level: Level 3
806 points

Dec 7, 2012 1:14 PM in response to El Deanio

UPDATE:


I'm about to upgrade from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion. Acting on a hunch, I searched out HP OCR and Mountain Lion only to find that others have found that the OCR function has yet again not been transferred to by HP over to Mac OSX and remains part of HP Utility, and furthermore that HP Utility is fazed by Mountain Lion. So it looks like I'm going to be back to square one as far as OCR is concerned.


I hope that Fender Stratocaster USB guitar, for which I'm upgrading to ML, is going to be worth it!


Message was edited by: El Deanio

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HP All-in-One Printer/Scanner OCR support

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