translating

[John A Stuart]

Hi All, I have been using OCR tech to scan and translate Japanese characters, but, have always had trouble scanning vertical text. I have just received a device that reads vertical text and puts it in left to right format.

Example 開六兼元とならんで末関鍛冶を代表する兼定には同銘が数代あ夕、定の銘宇によってど鋭、思巌と区別して呼んで川る。Of course this allows me to magnify each character to make translation easier. The only problem I still have is making the text make sense in English. Still a long and tedious process and I get it wrong as often as right. All my translation software works on individual characters. I have used on-line translation and in most cases it produces garbage. What I am asking is, could you all tell me what software you use that provides good results or what on-line services you use that I may have missed? Thanks, John

[Guido]

John, I don't know if it helps or not, but here's a screenshot of my personal translation software (however, I'd like to know which OCR you use):

[Bugyotsuji]

Hey, that's MY brain. Where did you find it?

[John A Stuart]

Hi Guido, The only problem with your software is it isn't shareware and is probably proprietary :lol: . I use I.R.I.S. I have used it for a couple of years. http://www.irislink.com I had a pen scanner for awhile and just got the one that recognises Asian script and it has the function to read vertical text and convert to left to right text. I have all kinds of dictionaries and software for translation. European languages are a breeze especially having taken French, German and Latin in school. It is the Asian languages that fry my brain and it is fun, but, excruciatingly painful at times. Actually Chinese is easier for me as I spent some time in southern China and studied conversational Cantonese for awhile. John

[Bugyotsuji]

John, that sentence above that you have toppled to the horizontal seems to have gained several 'mistakes' in the process; this could well explain the inability of your translation software to make sense of it.

[John A Stuart]

Hi Piers, That is an uncorrected version just to demonstrate. I actually have to check each character individually as I scan each sentence. It still isn't a pefect process. John

[IanB]

John, I too have tried this kind of software and had no trouble with the direction of the Japanese text, even if it was slightly askew, but it never read all the kanji correctly. After scanning it was necessary to go through it kanji by kanji to ensure the graphic image was correct. It then had to be converted into a text file and then finally into 'English'. It was in this last step that it really fell over, especially when kanji were being used in a specialist sense. In the end I resorted to dictionaries as previously. Even if all I get is the general sense, it is better than the software's effort.

Ian Bottomley

[John A Stuart]

Exactly right, Ian. Me as well. John