First use of xnconvert. read jpeg2000 file

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PorterSprings
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Feb 22, 2014 6:27 pm

First use of xnconvert. read jpeg2000 file

Post by PorterSprings »

I am a first time user. I want to enhance old newspapers stored in jpeg2000 before processing with abbyy finereader 12. i load jpeg2000 file to xnconvert and get: C:\Users\fgilkeson\Desktop\nuggetjan1900\AWC_1900_1JAN_0000.jp2 0x0x0 : not a picture

what is the problem? abbyy can read the file as jpeg2000.

jpeg2000 image is stored here: https://ia801506.us.archive.org/22/items/AWC_1904_1JAN/

click on jp2.zip and pick fist jp2 file for example.

what does xnconvert mean "not a picture'?
cday
XnThusiast
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Location: Cheltenham, U.K.

Re: First use of xnconvert. read jpeg2000 file

Post by cday »

PorterSprings wrote: ... what does xnconvert mean "not a picture'? ...
The message "not a picture''? means that XnConvert can't open the file, but XnConvert 1.53 opens it successfully in Windows on my computer:
XnConvert_JP2.png
You are using Windows, are you?
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
PorterSprings
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Feb 22, 2014 6:27 pm

Re: First use of xnconvert. read jpeg2000 file

Post by PorterSprings »

I am using windows 8. maybe that is the problem. I just had to get a new computer so i got a hp pavilion 20 all-in-one. it came with windows 8. i use chrome all the time so i bypass windows 8 interface. i will look to see what microsoft says about windows 8 compatibility with xnconvert.

Thanks or the quick response. good to see you got it to load.

by the way, i was trying to get other file types to load and note that pdf won't load either on my machine.
cday
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Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2012 9:45 am
Location: Cheltenham, U.K.

Re: First use of xnconvert. read jpeg2000 file

Post by cday »

Opening JPEG2000 files in XnView software including XnConvert requires a JP2 plug-in, but if you're using Windows the required plug-in should be in the Plugins folder in your XnConvert folder with the name openjp2.dll .

There are known issues with opening files with Windows 8 that have been discussed in other threads so that may well be the problem.

Abbyy FineReader 12 should be able to read your JPEG2000 fie reasonably well despite the yellow background colour in the image: I've done a quick test on a short section of a column using the Abbyy Screenshot Reader bundled with the program for conveience, and the results didn't seem too bad considering the quality of the original image. More to the point, I'm not sure if there is any enhancement you can make using XnConvert that will improve the recognition results, although there is certainly no harm experimenting...
PorterSprings
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Feb 22, 2014 6:27 pm

Re: First use of xnconvert. read jpeg2000 file

Post by PorterSprings »

xnconvert not listed at windows 8 compatability site. I submitted request for check.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ ... enter/Home?
cday
XnThusiast
Posts: 4238
Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2012 9:45 am
Location: Cheltenham, U.K.

Re: First use of xnconvert. read jpeg2000 file

Post by cday »

I think the problem is with the opening of file formats in Windows 8 generally or something similar, rather than specifically with XnConvert but I don't immediately have the thread to hand: XnTriq will provide links when he logs on... :)

If our previous posts crossed, please see my comment about the quick test I did using FineReader 12.
PorterSprings
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Feb 22, 2014 6:27 pm

Re: First use of xnconvert. read jpeg2000 file

Post by PorterSprings »

abbyy finereader 12 is a great product in my opinion. i have been running a lot of tests on conversion. i am looking for a way to preedit jpegs to get a better conversion by abbyy. It would be useful to 1)increase contrast between letters and background; 2) fix skew, some pages are skewed and this causes a problem with 3)the line in the column boundary.

will xnconvert help with the deskew problem?

Can xnconvert be used to "erase" the line between the newspaper columns?

Can xnconvert be used to increase contrast?

Also abbyy sees "smudges" on page and tries to convert them. Is there a way to bulk erase or diminish smudges? Maybe not.

Thanks for looking into this for me.

Your feedback is very useful.

I am looking for a strategy to "mass" convert old newspaper archives into ebooks.

I tried to use photoshop but new photoshop trial will not even start up on my computer complaining that it lacks enough vram.
cday
XnThusiast
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Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2012 9:45 am
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Re: First use of xnconvert. read jpeg2000 file

Post by cday »

I've now opened the image in FineReader 12 and find the text recognition surprisingly good considering the resolution and discolouration of the source image. The image enhancement that might possibly improve the recognition results might be to resample the page image to increase the resolution, but the image dimensions are already quite large and the reading results are probably limited more by the accuracy of individual printed characters than by image resolution.

I think your problem is really a question of strategy: what you want to achieve and the most practical way to achieve it. I presume you want to make the newspaper text searchable and then save each page as a PDF file using FineReader's 'Text under page image' mode?

Given the size and complexity of a newspaper page, and the fact that part of the content consists of advertisements, which might ideally be made searchable but are less important than the editorial text, it would probably be quicker and more practical to simply zone the editorial text areas and recognise them. Additionally, if the aim is to make the editorial text searchable, it is only really necessary to correct likely keywords that might be searched for. Following that strategy should make the job rather more practical!

If you are not familiar with it already, you might find the following forum of interest:

http://www.diybookscanner.org
cday
XnThusiast
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Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2012 9:45 am
Location: Cheltenham, U.K.

Re: First use of xnconvert. read jpeg2000 file

Post by cday »

We've crossed again so posts and replies are getting rather out of sequence...
PorterSprings wrote:abbyy finereader 12 is a great product in my opinion.
It is the best or equal best for recognition results, is better on difficult images than Adobe Acrobat, and has a much better user interface than another leading OCR application!
PorterSprings wrote:i have been running a lot of tests on conversion. i am looking for a way to preedit jpegs to get a better conversion by abbyy. It would be useful to 1)increase contrast between letters and background; 2) fix skew, some pages are skewed and this causes a problem with 3)the line in the column boundary.
I really doubt if it is worth trying to preprocess the images to improve FineReader's recognition results because FineReader already applies many preprocessing steps in its attempts to optimise its results. You're welcome to try to prove me wrong but once you've experimented a bit I think you'll find that your time is best spent developing the most efficient workflow to achieve your aims using FineReader.
PorterSprings wrote:will xnconvert help with the deskew problem? Can xnconvert be used to "erase" the line between the newspaper columns? Can xnconvert be used to increase contrast? Also abbyy sees "smudges" on page and tries to convert them. Is there a way to bulk erase or diminish smudges? Maybe not.
XnConvert currently doesn't have a deskew but XnView Classic does, XnConvert can increase contrast using the Levels function, smudges I would have to think about but I don't think they should really be an issue if you optimise your FineReader workflow. But FineReader provides a number of image enhancement tools including deskewing and contrast enhancement -- look for the 'Edit Image' icon on the toolbar. It is worth exploring the interface and reading the manual as OCR is a fairly heavyweight application.
PorterSprings wrote:I am looking for a strategy to "mass" convert old newspaper archives into ebooks.
I haven't explored FineReader's ebook interface but presumably you will simply want to extract the editorial text and pictures, see the remarks in my previous post.

I would recommend the book scanning forum for further support for what you are doing.