I wanted some guidance or tips on how to extract information from within a check (cheque) into an Excel sheet using Optical Character Recognition (OCR).
I am trying to extract check details (date, payee's name, payment amount in words, and payee's address) from checks, into an Excel sheet, using the Canon imageFormula CR-150 check scanner and the Ranger Flex software installed on Windows 11. I am able to extract the Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) characters (check numbers) from the bottom of the check into an Excel sheet using the Scanning Utility for the Canon CR-150. However, I am not able to extract the check details within the check into an Excel Sheet using OCR and the Ranger Flex application. I had partial success when I was able to extract certain numbers from within the check into the Ranger Flex application by selecting the OCR Font called CheckWriter (through trial and error), and using a ruler to find the coordinates of the area to be captured in millimeters (an archaic method imo) and save these coordinates in the Ranger Generic Options (height and width of capture area, and offset measurements from the right edge and bottom edge of the check). This only worked for numbers within the check. I was unsuccessful in capturing the text within the check using the Ranger, inspite having test scanned using each of the OCR Fonts (CheckWriter, MicrAutoDetect, E13B, OCRB, OCRA). And there are also no apparent options for exporting this data from the Ranger, so clearly I'm on the wrong track.
1. Can the information within a check be extracted to Excel using the Canon Scanning Utility instead?
2. Is there an alternative way of using the Ranger software (e.g. API)?
3. What other solutions (open source and paid options) exist for extracting such data from within a check?
Screenshots to follow tomorrow.
