Question
Why some features that were available in the previous program version cannot be found in the FineReader PDF for Mac?
Answer
FineReader PDF for Mac does not contain some of the features of the previous version FineReader Pro for Mac, namely:
- Image Editor tool: Invert Colors
- Automator support for batch processing and task automation
- Re-ordering recognition areas
-
Change Page Order option
These features are planned to be added to FineReader PDF for Mac in later releases. Please follow FineReader PDF for Mac Release Notes for announcements.
Note: This article will be updated when the features are added to the software.
Comments
12 comments
Grant Barrett
Thanks. This answered my question about Automator support. I am eagerly looking forward to getting my scripts back up and running with the new version of FineReader.
Gvheil
Thank you for pointing out what is still missing.
Image preprocessing is essential to enhance the quality of scans at least a little bit, e. g. to have white background instead of gray or to make colors a little bit more realistic. So without image preprocessing the new FineReader is not able to produce satisfactory scans and I have to use the old version in spite of some incompatibilities with Big Sur.
Of course, a much better solution for that problem would be the possibility to define a profile (to account at least for overall deficiencies like brightness or contrast) for each scanner that FineReader could use while it improves the scanned image automatically. I do not expect sophisticated image processing! I simply dislike things like gray backgrounds in scans of white paper.
Tony Deadman
Please can you give us a clear timeline as to when the missing features will be added to FineReader PDF? Release 1 is in actual fact a downgrade at additional cost to the customer. The least you could do would be to show how keen you are to put things right as soon as possible and mange our expectations properly by giving reasonable predicted dates for new releases.
David Brewster
I agree absolutely. At the very least there should be a free upgrade until it actually is an upgrade. Customers shouldn't have to pay for a product simply to fix old bugs while also removing important features in the process.
Matthewberry
I paid to "upgrade" from Finereader Pro for Mac to Finereader for Mac to regain access to the Image Editor functions lost upon upgrade to Big Sur, only to discover that these functions are not included. Please offer your paying customers at least an estimate of when the Image Editor features will be added to Finereader for Mac.
Victoria Dvornikova
Hello Matthewberry,
The next release will include Image Editor. This article will be updated accordingly.
Btafssp
Great news—thanks!
Hongwei Zhang
Victoria Dvornikova I've been following relevant posts since the issue with Big Sur was discovered; I am happy to know the image editor is going to be included—that is the most important feature for me in FineReader, tbh. Quick question now:
By "next release," did you mean a certain release "2"? I am seeing this following release note marking both "release 1" and "update 3."
https://support.abbyy.com/hc/en-us/articles/4404087492114-FineReader-PDF-15-for-Mac-Release-1-Update-3
abbyy-mac-user-missing-automator
Automator support is much needed!
Gvheil
Once again I checked whether I could replace my old Fine Reader for scans and OCR by version 15.2.4. Unfortunately, the comment I posted about a year ago is still applicable. Yes, some image preprocessing for scans is now available. But why is it impossible to provide at least the functionality that was there before? Brightness and contrast now exist as check boxes and you may even change the background to white. But the results are far from what I expect. Why not have the possibility to adjust brightness and contrast in steps as before? The old immage editor supported at least acceptable results. In particular contrast allowed to produce (almost) white backgrounds, whereas now a klick in the correponding check box sometimes produces a very dark background. Of course, how could you know what the scanner did to the white background? You either need support for a scanner profile or calibration (this would be a "professional" solution) or continuos manual adjustment, not just a click-box. - Yes, I can use a separate scan program, import the scans into Fine Reader and then continue with OCR. Not very comfortable. (And many scan programs nowadays include OCR, although Abbyy does a much better job.) So once again why not have th simple solution that was there before?
Joel Loewenstein
Hello, still desperately missing the automator and command line functions. I cannot use the product manually in my use case with ScanSnap Sanner and Devonthink. Both have build-in ABBYY technology but older releases which creates much larger docs with less precision.
Sachin Walia
I hope the Abby team releases an OSX PDF editor with the same features as Windows, even if they increase the price. I am willing to subscribe because the OCR is way better than anything else out there. It even beats Acrobat. However, the problem with the current version is that if you need more advanced features like redact, batch processing, and Automator, then you use something like Wondershare, which in my opinion, has poor OCR output even though it uses Abby Engine.
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