Text recognition solutions are being implemented in all sorts of ways nowadays, and thanks to the added convenience they can bring about, they’re quite well-received. For instance, newer phones have OCR tools built into their camera app, which works to introduce the user base to the boons of optical text recognition algorithms.
On your PC, however, you’re going to have to look a bit to find something worthwhile. If the idea of an OCR-based translation software entices you, then PDNob Image Translator might be what you’re looking for.
A text recognizer, first and foremost
Though the program’s designation might initially get users to think they could only utilize it for translation duties, the full story is a bit different. Much like other OCR solutions you may have come across, simplicity and efficiency are the name of the game, and here’s no different.
Users can utilize the Ctrl+Alt+Z hotkey to select the region for recognition, and the software will handle the rest. The hotkey is customizable, so you can modify it to something you deem more comfortable anytime.
As for the text recognition performance, the scanning takes only a few seconds, and the result is usually satisfactory — though you’ll have to add in some spaces and separate some words. Users can “extract” text from images with ease, and, if configured in the Settings menu, the tool can automatically auto translate and copy the result to your clipboard.
Unreliable translation
As text recognition algorithms have evolved over the year, translating text from images is a concept that is not as arcane as it once was. The implementation here leaves plenty to be desired, however, as the translation fails to even function most of the time. Sometimes, all the translation algorithm does is further muddle the recognized passage, resulting in a text that isn’t at all in the supposed language.
What’s more, attempting to translate something would usually greet us with an error message, which would pertain to a sort of connection problem. This would manifest sporadically, preventing us from translating anything.
All in all, PDNob Image Translator is a promising solution on paper, but some additional work needs to be done in how the algorithm handles text recongition and translation.
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