I have recently been using the builtin OCR functionality of MODI to capture text of a window. I use the window handle and could get text at any region or I could get the coordinates of specific text that I want to search for.
It looks like MODI has been depricated, and it isn't included in office 2010 which we're now using, so I need to find a new OCR alternative. Are there other good libraries I can use?
There are a few options:
Free API from Google OCR. Google took over HP's code developed in 90s, also known as Tesseract OCR. Sufficient for basic OCR needs. Only this one comes to mind in this category.
Free and low cost cloud-based Web OCR API hosted by WiseTrend. Provides access to top-notch OCR software with enhanced capabilities and multi-language support. More info here: http://www.wisetrend.com/wisetrend_ocr_cloud.shtml
If you need very high volume, then your own internal OCR platform is the most economic and efficient way to go. This OCR software runs as a service on your internal machines, has API for you to interface with it. Something like www wisetrend com and look at Recognition Server.
That covers all possible categories. Good luck.
Ilya Evdokimov 10+ years experience in OCR