Google Translator

[Lost in LOS]

I receive some mail all in Thai sometimes. I have used Google translator before and it works good if I have a doc in word etc. I don't know how to scan this letter so that I can copy the text and put it in the translator. I can do photo to file, image, pdf but I cant copy and paste the text with any of these. if I tray to use ocr it doesn't recognize the Thai type. If I try to import it to the translator it is just a photo or pdf and it doesn't work.

How can I get a letter into translator so it can read the thai type and translate it for me?

[schmutzie]

I think you have given the answer already. The problem is that your OCR software/hardware is not processing the Thai type.

You need to either find a replacement solution that does or look for something to fix that issue from the vendor.

What product(s) are you using?

[BB1950]

I'm afraid you can't. I have been trying for years to figure out a way. When you scan the document, it is an photo image. You need a OCR program to scan the image to get the text to use in Google Translate. As you have discovered, the OCR programs do not work with Thai script. I have tried a half dozen or so. Thai is a minor language, so there won't be any OCR programs in the near future that will be able to scan Thai script.

Actually, it seems as if OCR technology development has come to a standstill.

Do what I do. Use a human translator or reader. Your wife, girl friend, boy friend, waiter, waitress, neighbor, or whatever. I understand Thai well enough, that I only need someone to read it to me. I never seem to have a problem to find someone that is willing to read or translate it. They all seem to take a great deal of pride in doing it. They also love to give advice in dealing with the mail item.

Edited September 24, 2010 by BB1950

[sulasno]

IIRC there is software that could extract text from an image though not sure whether it can handle Thai scripts

[lothda]

A five second Google search turned up this site that might just do the job for you.

[BB1950]

A five second Google search turned up this site that might just do the job for you.

Thanks for the information.:jap:

However I tried it several times using several different images and each time I got the result:

เกิดข้อผิดพลาดขึ้นกรุณาลองใหม่อีกครั้ง

in English:

There was an error, please try again

Not very helpful.

[Canada]

I get my girl to type it in for me

[longball53098]

Do Thai businesses use any sort of OCR software for there documents? No one has developed a program?

[fremmel]

I haven't tried it myself but ABBY Finereader lists Thai among their recognition languages. And they say it even has dictionary support so it can check spelling.

http://finereader.abbyy.com/recognition_languages

[Lost in LOS]

Thanks for all the tries, i tried Google search etc. tried many things for hours but could never find a solution, looks like i will be using the long haired dictionary, my last resort but apparently my only one

[H2oDunc]

Word 2007 also can translate as well so if it is a word doc just use this facility ?

[doctormann]

ABBYY Fine Reader V10 will handle Thai script. I've tried it and it does work. You can download a trial version for free but this is date and page number restricted. To buy the full version is pretty expensive so I haven't bothered as I can't justify the cost for the occasional document that I want to scan and translate.

Google for information on costs and download instructions.

DM

[Tywais]

ABBYY Fine Reader V10 will handle Thai script. I've tried it and it does work.

I've also used it and it has a pretty good accuracy. But the price is well beyond my pay grade.

[Lost in LOS]

Word 2007 also can translate as well so if it is a word doc just use this facility ?

It is a letter I received, I can scan it into word but the scanner cant handle thai and makes it come out like Russian

I just used teh long haired dictionary but like to keep my business to myself but my Thai is not good enough yet. If I could just somehow copy and paste Google will do it good enough but I cant copy and paste no matter what I try

Edited September 25, 2010 by Lost in LOS

[lothda]

A five second Google search turned up this site that might just do the job for you.

Thanks for the information.:jap:

However I tried it several times using several different images and each time I got the result:

เกิดข้อผิดพลาดขึ้นกรุณาลองใหม่อีกครั้ง

in English:

There was an error, please try again

Not very helpful.

Make sure that the picture file has a resolution of 300 dpi, otherwise it won't work.

[BB1950]

A five second Google search turned up this site that might just do the job for you.

Thanks for the information.:jap:

However I tried it several times using several different images and each time I got the result:

เกิดข้อผิดพลาดขึ้นกรุณาลองใหม่อีกครั้ง

in English:

There was an error, please try again

Not very helpful.

Make sure that the picture file has a resolution of 300 dpi, otherwise it won't work.

The files were 300 dpi. I read that part. Any other suggestions?

I also was using Firefox. Maybe there's a compatibility problem. Anyone able to get this site to work?

[BB1950]

ABBYY Fine Reader V10 will handle Thai script. I've tried it and it does work.

I've also used it and it has a pretty good accuracy. But the price is well beyond my pay grade.

My first scanner about 7 years ago, came with ABBYY Fine Reader. At that time it would not scan Thai script, but It worked well for scanning English documents. In fact much better than Omni Page Pro which came with my latest scanner.

So this sounds encouraging. Unfortunately, the price makes it not practical for the number of times I need to scan a Thai document.