Adobe, in contrast, sells the current versions of Acrobat
DC only by monthly or annual licenses, although you
can still buy perpetual licenses of the 2017 version for
$299 (basic version) or $449 (Pro version). Note that
Adobe Acrobat Pro boasts the deepest feature set and
closely integrates with Adobe’s cloud services and apps.
Other powerful PDF apps with perpetual licenses
include Kofax Power PDF Advanced at $179 and Nitro
Pro at $159, but they can’t match FineReader’s feature
set. That said, Kofax, unlike FineReader, includes a full-
text indexing feature for fast searching. For OCR,
FineReader’s closest rival is Kofax OmniPage at $149
(perpetual) for the Standard Version. OmniPage’s $449
Ultimate version adds speech and document-repository
features.
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several mobile apps for various scanning needs.
INTERFACE AND GETTING STARTED
FineReader’s interface is minimalist and
straightforward, but you can drill down to an
exceptionally rich set of tools and options. The main
menu has three separate panes: one for opening and
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documents from your scanner, and a third for
comparing documents. Each section, as I’ll explain,
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FineReader
Review
PROS Highest-quality
OCR on the market
Keyboard-friendly
OCR editor for manual
corrections
Exceptionally clear
interface. Exports to
multiple formats
Unique document-
compare feature.
CONS Lacks full-text
indexing for fast
searches.
BOTTOM LINE
FineReader 15 is the
best all-round PDF-
and-OCR app there is,
with a smooth,
modern interface,
fast performance, and
a deep feature set.