Testing Evernote's image & handwriting text transcription feature

Newsletter Housekeeping: Latest Evernote version for PC & Mac is 10.103.3. Grab it from the download page. I'm losing track of mobile but I'm on 10.103.0.

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Finally, after what seems like centuries of waiting, we have image-text transcription features built into Evernote and its freaking awesome!

Make sure you update to the latest version of the apps. You'll be able to see this on the desktop, web and mobile. If you don't see it right away give it a few hours or perform a log out and back in again.

What the new feature does is extract text from an image and insert it under the image as plain text. It works in a similar way to the audio transcription feature.

There are lots of applications for this:

• Extracting text from scans of paperwork

• Grabbing text from any type of image so you can copy/paste into an email

• Turning handwriting into plain text

• Scan & transcribe pages from old notebooks so you can search them

• Extracting data from business cards or forms

You can probably think of a bunch of other reasons for using this feature.

Some quick technicals for those who are interested.

• There is no image MB size limit apart from the size of the note which is 200MB in the paid plans.

• The physical image size can’t exceed 9216 pixels but that would probably be over the note limit anyway.

• Image formats that work are: JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, WEBP, HEIC and HEIF.

It’s worth noting that not all of the image formats can be previewed within the note editor but will work for transcription purposes.

I've been doing some testing.

I scanned in the instructions for the eye drops that I use when I've been sat in front of the screen for too long. The page is A4 and very crumpled and I scanned it using the 'Scan' button on the 'Create' screen of the Android app.

If you’re using one of the desktop apps, you can hover over the image to see the 'Transcribe' button.

It took around 17 seconds to transcribe the text and it did a great job. I could only find one error where it had changed a ‘have’ to ‘had’.

I've not screen grabbed the whole thing, but this is a clip of what Evernote produced.

The next test I did was to try and get it to turn some handwriting into text.

I had a nice little handwritten note from the company I get my backpacking meals from, so I scanned it in using the Android app.

I've screen grabbed this with the 'Transcribe' button showing.

The transcription itself took less than 10 seconds and gave me this.

Hi Jon,

Thank you for your order.

Please find your meals enclosed. Best wishes for a great summer :)

Marci and TentMeals

high energy

lightweight

natural

instant

TentMeals

HIGH ENERGY HEALTH

So, this transcription was interesting.

It showed the main content of the note first and then placed the call-out's last, even though they appeared at the top of the image. I like this.

If you were looking left to right at the text of this image it could read:

Hi Jon, TentMeals HIGH ENERGY HEALTH

Its transcribed it correctly and didn’t use the text in the logo as part of the main note.

What I also like is it kept the TentMeals format of writing that's in the logo when it transcribed the handwriting.

Finally, I gave Evernote a real tough one. Transcribe this!

It couldn’t. Evernote managed to pull all the headings OK but not the smaller text.

I tried again after cropping an area of the image.

This worked much better and I got the Welsh and English.

Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru Natural Resources Wales

Bryniau Clwyd a Dyffryn Dyfrdwy Clwydian Range and Dee Valley

Coed Moel Famau

Beth allech chi wneud yng Nghoed Moel Famau

Croeso i Goed Moel Famau - yng nghalon Ardal o Harddwch Naturiol Eithriadol Bryniau Clwyd a Dyffryn Dyfrdwy. Gan godi i uchder 554 metr (1,818 troedfedd), Moel Famau yw'r copa uchaf yng nghadwyn copaon Bryniau Clwyd.

Ar y copa lle ceir gweddillion Tŵr y Jubili, cofadail eiconig y gellir ei weld o bob cyfeiriad, oddi yno, golygfeydd anhygoel dros Ogledd Cymru a Gogledd-orllewin Lloegr.

Mae amryw o deithiau cerdded cylchol eraill ar gael o wahanol hyd a chymeriad, gan gynnwys y daith gerdded o faes parcio Coed Moel Famau ar gyfer beiciau mynydd graddfa glas (gweddol anodd).

Ar gyfer ymwelwyr ieuainc, ceir y llwybr Tracio Coedwig a'r ardal chwarae Nyh yr Hebog, sy boblogaidd gyda phlant.

What you can do at Coed Moel Famau

Welcome to Coed Moel Famau - in the heart of the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Rising to a height of 554 metres (1818 feet), Moel Famau is the highest peak on the Clwydian Range summit chain.

At the top lie the ruins of the Jubilee Tower, an iconic monument visible from all directions, with wonderful views out across North Wales and North West England.

There are several other circular walks of different lengths, from the Coed Moel Famau car park and a mountain bike trail which is graded blue (moderate difficulty).

For younger visitors, there is the Forest Tracker Trail and the popular Hawk's Nest play area.

For hard to read images try cropping to get better results.

This new feature doesn't replace the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) function that Evernote already has. You’ll still be able to find text in images from standard searches and highlight them. This new feature just extracts the text from the image for you.

A quick tip. If you combine image transcription and ‘Ai Edit’ you'll be able to extract and translate text from an image which could be useful for some folk.

Have you tried this out yet? What are your results like? Leave me a comment

Have a great weekend

All the best

Jon