[wgreene]

I occasionally use an online translation program such as Babel Fish to translate website material (highlight, copy, past, translate).

Today, using Photoshop Elements 3, I scanned a page of Japanese text. For what it's worth, I have a choice of 15 different "Save" or "Save As" formats.

Is it somehow possible to transfer my scanned page to an online translator such as Babel Fish in order to have it translated? I just assumed that it would be simple to do, but now I'm not so sure.


I would greatly apprectiate hearing from anyone who is able to help. Thank you very much.

[etaf]

if you used elements - it possible you scanned as an image - you should be able to scan using OCR as text into word or some editor and then translate

[JohnWill]

Of course, the OCR would have to deal with japanese text...

[wgreene]

Originally Posted by etaf

if you used elements - it possible you scanned as an image - you should be able to scan using OCR as text into word or some editor and then translate

I'm not familiar with OCR, but I followed your advice and scanned using OCR. My problem now is not knowing what to do next. I don't have Word but I do have Open Office, which I figure would probably work just as well. Ultimately, I would like to be able to highlight, copy, and paste into an online translator.

[etaf]

you should be able to do that using openoffice
as it will now scan as text
OCR - Optical Character Recogintion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical...er_recognition

the scan should have saved as a text file - possible you can open in notepad and then copy and paste into translator

[letchworth]

If you cannot specify any other program to receive text than Word-- most OCR programs have the option to save the text to the clipboard. It can then be "Pasted" into OpenOffice--- or, for that matter, pasted into your online translation site.

Good luck,
letchworth

[wgreene]

I've tried following your suggestions, but unfortunately I've come to the conclusion that what I'm trying to do simply can't be done. One problem is that I keep getting a message informing me that the "Adobe Photoshop Elements clip is too big to be exported." Perhaps that is the reason why I'm not given the option to Paste into an online translator.

On the other hand, in my confusion I guess it's possible that I'm going about this in the wrong way. Maybe I'm missing something. I had hoped that scanning using OCR would've been the answer, but I don't believe it is.

Thank you for your suggestions so far, and if you have any more -- or if you suspect I may be doing something wrong -- I would be very glad to hear from you again.

[etaf]

you should not be using Photoshop Elements at all.

you should have a program on the PC to scan documents - in text format or Image format
whats the scanner program you have
Part of the options on the program may be to ask what program you want to open the scanned text in - choose notepad etc

[JohnWill]

Is it possible to see a small clip of the page you're trying to translate?

[Noyb]

Do you have any other choices besides Japanese ??
I Googled and saw some Japanese OCR software, But it's very expensive.

The problem will be converting the Scanned Raster Image into a Japanese Character set to input to a translator.
My OCR can't convert Japanese

[wgreene]

Originally Posted by etaf

you should not be using Photoshop Elements at all.

you should have a program on the PC to scan documents - in text format or Image format
whats the scanner program you have
Part of the options on the program may be to ask what program you want to open the scanned text in - choose notepad etc

I have an Epson scanner and the program is Epson Twain 5.

What I've done is open Photoshop Elements > File > Import > Epson Twain. Next I chose OCR from the Destination drop-down, and then clicked Scan. First I got a pre-scan, then a full scan. I didn't notice an option to open the scanned image in a certain program. At one point I had the image opened in Adobe Acrobat Reader and I did have the option to Copy to Clipboard, which I did. The image on the clipboard was of very poor quality. Also, I did not have the Copy/Paste option.

The page I'm scanning is a Japanese music CD insert. I don't know that's it's even possible to have the printed Japanese characters on the scanned image recognized as text. Perhaps using some program other than PS Elements might make a difference.

It's not really important that I do this Japanese translation; it's just that I wanted to find out if it could be done. If being able to do it would require the purchase of additonal software, then it's certainly not worth it.

[wgreene]

Originally Posted by JohnWill

Is it possible to see a small clip of the page you're trying to translate?

I haven't been able to figure out how to transer the page to this forum for viewing. What I have is a scanned image of a page containing Japanese text. I figure it might to be difficult, if not impossible, to have that text recognized as text.

[etaf]

it looks like epson {i dont own one so cant confirm} have a software package called EPSON Smart Panel
http://support2.epson.net/manuals/en..._G/SMART_1.HTM

on this page it talks about using OCR and ouput to word processor

http://support2.epson.net/manuals/en...20to%20ocr%20b

Use this application to scan and convert images to text. The converted text can be saved or sent to a word processing application. For details, refer to the EPSON Smart Panel documentation.

[wgreene]

Originally Posted by Noyb

Do you have any other choices besides Japanese ??
I Googled and saw some Japanese OCR software, But it's very expensive.

The problem will be converting the Scanned Raster Image into a Japanese Character set to input to a translator.
My OCR can't convert Japanese

No, I'm interested only in Japanese translation.

I agree with you that conversion into Japanese for recognition by a translator could be a problem.

[wgreene]

Thanks for the information. I'll take a look at it now.