Content of the page:

• Developer Licenses
• Runtime Licenses
• Add-on Modules
• Network License Management
• FineReader XIX Runtime License
• Prices
• Upgrade policy

The use of ABBYY FineReader Engine 7.1 is governed by License Agreements for development and/or distribution. There are two types of licenses:

Developer Licenses

A Developer License grants developers the right to install FineReader Engine 7.1 development tools for the purpose of creating their own software with integrated FineReader Engine parts.
Developers do not have the right to transfer their licenses to third parties.

The Developer License is protected either by a USB protection key or by a software protection key.

FineReader Engine 7.1 Developer License allows to use almost all functions of FineReader Engine (including fixed form matching from FormReader) with the exception of CJK OCR (Chinese, Japanese, Korean OCR), FlexiCapture Studio and form templates matching created by FlexiCapture Studio. Such additional functions may be purchased separately upon request.

Runtime Licenses

A Runtime License (RTL) allows the end user to use the ABBYY FineReader Engine 7.1 components as part of the application created by the developer. The developer must purchase RTLs from ABBYY and redistribute the licenses with the application which uses ABBYY FineReader Engine components.

RTLs differ in types and cost. For example, there are RTLs, which allow the end user to use ABBYY FineReader Engine 7.1 jointly on several computers within one LAN (see chapter “Network Runtime Licenses” below). RTLs also vary in the number of pages, which the user is allowed to process per month.

RTLs are protected either by a USB protection key or by a software protection key.
RTLs are modular and determine page count and functionality.

Predefined License Kits and Add-On Modules

Having analyzed the most frequent requests for Engine packages, ABBYY has created a series of Predefined Runtime License Kits combining different levels of FineReader Engine functionality.

• FineReader Engine 7.1 ASCII
  At the request of developers within the DMS industry, ABBYY offers a specialized Runtime License Kit that offers only automated page analysis with ASCII text as the only export format. This engine is well suited to applications which use OCR to feed electronic texts to retrieval systems, and which do not require retention of text formatting.

• FineReader Engine 7.1 Professional
  This Professional Runtime License Kit could be using in the following tasks:
• Automatic conversion of documents, retaining the entire formatting, from image to RTF, PDF, XLS or any other external format which is supported by the FineReader Engine (some of external formats are provided as Add-on modules);
• Content creation and management (e.g. Web publishing or press-clipping systems);
• Fixed and semi-structured forms processing;
• Various control systems (tickets, passports, driver's licenses, etc.);
• Many other tasks related to document conversion, document recognition or document capture.

The Professional Runtime License Kit has several add-on modules, which allow you to customize the license for different tasks.

• FineReader Engine 7.1 Barcode/OMR
  This Barcode/OMR Runtime License Kit provides limited functionality for recognizing only OMR, 1D or 2D barcodes. It is very useful in solutions for fast sorting of documents using barcode markers.

To make it easy for developers to purchase only the functionality that they need, ABBYY has created add-on modules that offer specific types of functionality. Developers can customize their FineReader Engine package based on the level of functionality and control they require by simply purchasing the corresponding add-on modules. Functionality available through add-on modules: 2D barcodes (PDF417), document analysis for invoices, OMR, PDF opening, XML export, CJK OCR, FlexiCapture Studio and FormReader templates matching, ICR, and Cyrillic ICR.

Version/Functionality	ASCII	Professional	Barcode/OMR
Image Input/Processing
Scanning/Opening Images
Preprocessing Images
PDF Opening
Document Analysis
Automatic Page Analysis
Manual Block Manipulation
Automatic Finding of Barcodes at Any Angle
Matching of fixed form templates
Matching of fixed form and FlexiCapture Studio templates
Document Analysis for Invoices
Recognition Modules
Print Text Recognition (normal, matrix printer, typewriter, OCR-A, OCR-B, MICR)
ICR
Fast Mode Recognition
1D Barcode Recognition
OMR
2D Barcode Recognition
CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) OCR
Text Manipulation
Recognition Confidence Value and Image Coordinates of Each Character
Set of Text Editing Functions
Export and Synthesis
Export to TXT
Export to RTF, XLS, HTML, PPT, CSV, DBF
Export to PDF
Export to ASCII XML
Export to Native XML/Word XML
Advanced Functionality
API for User Languages Management
API for Pattern Training

 - available in this version

 - add-on modules available upon request in this version 

 - not available in this version

Add-on Modules

There are several add-on modules available for RTLs, extending its functionality:

• PDF Opening and Recognition.
  ABBYY FineReader Engine 7.1 can open and process PDF files, providing close to 100% recognition accuracy on commonly used PDF files (including files with encoded fonts). Using an Intelligent Opening Scheme, FineReader Engine 7.1 now recognizes PDF files in three steps: it first converts PDF files into images using Adobe® PDF Library Technology, then performs standard recognition, and finally it extracts the “text layer” from the PDF file and checks the recognition results against this text. This approach also eliminates problems associated with extraction of encoded fonts.

• PDF Export.
  This add-on module allows you to export the resulting text into PDF format in four modes: image only, text and image, text over image, text under image. Under the ASCII license, only "PDF Image Only" export is available.

• Saves edited documents in PDF.
  All changes in recognized text made through API will be saved in any of the supported PDF saving formats. With this feature, you will be able to open an existing PDF file in application with embedded ABBYY FineReader Engine 7.1, make changes to the file and save it in PDF with all your changes seamlessly integrated into the document.
• Creates PDF files optimized for web publishing.
  All PDF documents created by ABBYY FineReader Engine 7.1 are optimized for publishing on the Web: your readers will be able to view the first pages of a multi-page PDF document while the computer is still downloading the rest of the file.
• XML Export.
  • Native XML output.
    This module exports recognition results tagged with document structure information, including the location of graphics, tables, paragraphs and even characters, as well as the full formatting information about characters, paragraphs and tables. The XML module provides unrivalled power of post-recognition processing, making it easy to export this information to external applications, such as document management and content management systems and databases (e.g. MS SQL Server, Oracle or MS SharePoint).
  • Microsoft Word XML output.
    ABBYY FineReader Engine 7.1 allows you to export recognized documents as native XML using the Microsoft Word 2003 defined schema, a widely anticipated emerging standard for file use. This allows you to take advantage of the XML file format, which can be manipulated and searched using any program that can process industry standard XML. Additionally, it provides the basis for reporting, publishing and submitting data to business processes.
  • ASCII XML output.
    For developers of EDMS (Electronic Document Management Systems) and archives, a special XML output feature has been designed. This feature is available for the ASCII license only (text output only). Resulting files contain information about character positions and confidence level with which they have been recognized. Such XML files can be easily indexed by EDMS or archives, and those parts of text which have a low recognition confidence level can be automatically deleted. Such XML files can also be used to highlight the search results on the original image after carrying out a search.

• CJK OCR (Chinese, Japanese, Korean OCR).
  ABBYY FineReader Engine 7.1 has an add-on module for Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Japanese and Korean OCR. This module allows you to use the API in ABBYY FineReader Engine 7.1 to recognize Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters. The CJK add-on module includes:

• Recognition of mixed Chinese-English, Japanese-English or Korean-English texts;
• Image manipulation and preprocessing;
• Automatic recognition of vertical and horizontal text;
• Auto-detection of text blocks, tables, columns and pictures (vertical text – on simple layouts only);
• Ability to draw blocks manually;
• Detailed information about each recognized character;
• Export into XML (as add-on module), TXT and CSV formats.

• 2D Barcode Recognition.
  The 2D Barcode Recognition add-on module recognizes PDF417, the industry standard for 2D barcodes. PDF417 encodes up to 1.1 kilobytes of data, including text and graphics information.

• ICR.
  The ICR add-on module allows you to recognize hand-printed texts.

• Due “structural character models”, which describe the structure and shape of a letter as a set of related line segments and arcs, ABBYY ICR innovative recognition technology provides extremely high accuracy even on recognition of joined-up characters.
• The set of characters which could be recognized by the ICR add-on module covers 90 languages. For 21 of them (17 languages with Latin characters, 3 languages with Cyrillic characters and 1 more is Greek) has morphology/dictionary support. Recognition of Cyrillic available only upon request.
• The ICR add-on module separates field content from various field borders and frames — underlined fields, boxes, comb-style fields, etc.
• Fast mode recognition of ABBYY Engine ICR add-on module is designed for high-volume document processing applications where speed is the most important system parameter. This mode increases processing speed by 200-250%. 
• One of the ABBYY ICR main advantages is that it delivers almost the same high accuracy of ICR on digits, digits combined with letters of one language, and digits combined with letters of several languages, even if fields contain both upper and lower case letters.
• ICR add-on module supports several styles of hand-writing: European, American, Russian, Japanese, and Thai.
• Indian ICR digits support that can be very useful in Arab states..

• OMR.
  The Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) add-on module recognizes simple checkmarks, grouped checkmarks, model checkmarks and checkmarks with “corrections” made by hand. It delivers an accuracy rate of 99.995%.

• Document Analysis for Invoices.

  This special document analysis function is designed as a preprocessing engine for converting semi-structured documents, such as invoices, payment drafts, checks, transfers, business cards, agreement, health claim forms, resumes, etc. In this preprocessing mode, the function has been designed to find as much text on these documents as possible, including characters and numbers — even if this information is located within logos, pictures or small-text areas.

  Unlike in standard full-page document analysis, this specialized document analysis assumes all printed information on the documents is text. For example text in table cells will be marked as separate texts blocks. It is ensured that important text information is not identified as graphic elements and that words or numerical values are not separated into multiple characters. As a result, maximum information about the text, including its coordinates, is available for analysis, field-by-field processing and parsing at subsequent processing stages by other systems.

  Document Analysis for Invoices is used by FlexiCapture Studio as a first step of semi-structured document analysis, helping to extract data from unstructured forms/documents with similar data but different layouts. You may find more information of how FlexiCapture works here.

• Fixed form matching and processing.
  It provides with the possibility to extract data from different forms (usually filled-out by hand) such as questionnaires, exams, tax returns, registration cards etc.

• Matching and processing both fixed and semi-structured forms using FlexiCapture Studio.
  This add-on module contains the fixed form matching add-on (see above), plus it provides developers with the capability to match FlexiLayouts. This allows data capture from both fixed and semi-structured forms and documents such as invoices, claim forms, resumes, or loan documents. Data can also be extracted from documents scanned with different resolutions.

Network Runtime Licenses

FineReader Engine 7.1 includes Network License Manager (NLM), which makes managing licenses and distribution of work among workstations in a network easier and more flexible. It is possible to set up a single license in a network for several workstations. Thus in addition to the stand-alone configuration, RTLs come in one of the following three flavors: per seat, per seat aggregated and concurrent aggregated.

1. Per Seat

   The license of this type stores the number of ABBYY FineReader Engine 7.1 copies which can be used on the end user's computers simultaneously. If such a license has a restriction on pages which may be processed, this restriction applies separately to each computer. For example, a Professional Per-Seat RTL 10K PPM (10000 pager per month) for 5 workstations allows you to use FineReader Engine 7.1 on 5 computers in a network, and on each computer it allows you to process no more than 10,000 pages per month.

   Network Licenses Manager (NLM) is used to assign licenses to workstations. If a workstation does not use a license, the license can be returned by NLM to the server. Then it is possible to re-assign it to another workstation. To be able to use ABBYY FineReader Engine 7.1, a workstation must be connected to the server.

2. Per Seat Aggregated

   This license type is similar to the per-seat license, but the maximum number of pages allowed for processing is shared among workstations. For example, a Professional Per-Seat Aggregated RTL 25K PPM for 3 workstations allows you to use FineReader Engine 7.1 on 3 computers in a network, and all three computers may process no more than 25,000 pages per month among them.

3. Concurrent Aggregated

   This license type is similar to the per-seat aggregated license, but there is no need to assign licenses to workstations by using NLM.

   Each workstation with installed FineReader Engine automatically requests NLM for a license, when an application containing FineReader Engine is started to use this software. If there is a “free” (i.e. not currently used by any workstation) concurrent aggregated RTL, NLM assigns it to the workstation and marks it as “busy.” Then NLM monitors the usage of the license. When the workstation is finished working with the license, it returns the license to NLM, and NLM marks it as “free.” If all of the licenses are “busy,” and one more workstation wants to use FineReader Engine, a message is displayed saying that FineReader Engine cannot be currently used on this workstation.

   Thus, a Concurrent Aggregated RTL does not require assigning licenses to each of the workstations in the network. You can install FineReader Engine on each workstation in the network, but NLM will automatically assign licenses to workstations when FineReader Engine is run on them.

FineReader XIX Runtime License

There are many old documents, books, and newspapers published in the 17-19th centuries all over the world. Most of them are very rare and many are unique. Stored in the archives of libraries and government organizations, they are national heritage that must be preserved. The best solution is to digitize them.
FineReader XIX RTL includes a special option which offers a UNIQUE ability to recognize old style European Fraktur or Black Letter texts created between 1600 and 1937. Currently English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish are supported, as well as such special fonts as Fraktur, Schwabacher, and the majority of Gothic fonts.

A FineReader XIX RTL has the same set of add-on modules as a Professional RTL.