Abbyy’s FineReader software is a perennial favourite of scanner manufacturers, and to see it making an appearance here is no surprise. Unfortunately, the differences between 6 Sprint Plus and the full version are much more pronounced than with OmniPage.

If you’re perfectly happy to accept FineReader’s automatic document zoning you’ll be fine, but manual zoning is about as user-friendly as a handleless frying pan. To create your own zone, you need to clear the automatic zone, draw a new zone, then right-click on the new zone, and then select whether you want the zone to be a textbox, image zone or a table.

Of course, everything would be fine if FineReader’s automatic zoning was up to par. Unfortunately, although it handled our skewed document admirably, it totally missed the point with a PC Authority feature table, treating it as a jumble of tiny images and textboxes, while missing other parts out altogether.

Actual text accuracy is excellent, with standard fonts being recognised very well. Formatting such as underlining and bold text was handled well, too. The general level of accuracy isn’t as good as OmniPage’s, though.