ABBYY
Encyclopedia
ABBYY is a Russian
software company, headquartered in Moscow
, that provides optical character recognition
, document capture and language software for both PC and mobile devices.
. As of 2011, the company has over 1000 employees in fourteen offices in Germany
(Munich
), the UK (Bracknell
), the USA (Milpitas, CA
), Japan
(Tokyo
), Taiwan
(Taipei
), Russia
(Moscow
), Ukraine
(Kiev
), Canada
(Ontario
), Australia
(Sydney
), and Cyprus
.
The key area of ABBYY's development and research is text recognition technologies and applied linguistics
. The majority of ABBYY products, such as document conversion
and document capture solutions and technologies, are designed to simplify the transition from paper documents to electronic information, eliminating the most time-consuming and labour-intensive tasks such as retyping text and manual data entry. ABBYY also develops language products, which include ABBYY Lingvo dictionary software and solutions for professional translators such as ABBYY Aligner.
In 2007, a branch specializing in publishing dictionaries, reference books, encyclopedias and guide-books, ABBYY Press, was established. ABBYY also owns ABBYY Language Services, a high-tech translation and localization agency.
Quarterly Innovative Leadership Award.
, Hmong–Mien, Hmong
and Kim Mun groups of the Sino-Tibetan language family.
FlexiCapture
Recognition Server
PDF Transformer
Mobile OCR Engine(SDK)
Lingvo
commented, in 2005, "FineReader 8.0 Pro is the best OCR
software we've seen" while PC Magazine
gives it four stars out of five.
However, also in 2005, PC Pro
gave FineReader four stars out of six, saying, "FineReader offers a decent compromise between the value and accuracy of Readiris and the power and automation features of OmniPage. If you need automation on a budget, it's the package to go for, but for home and occasional office use Readiris is the better package at this price."
In January 2007 the FineReader Engine (an OCR SDK) was selected for use in Ricoh
's DocumentMall document management system
.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
software company, headquartered in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, that provides optical character recognition
Optical character recognition
Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the mechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used to convert books and documents into electronic files, to computerize a record-keeping...
, document capture and language software for both PC and mobile devices.
History
ABBYY was founded in 1989 by David YangDavid Yang
Davíd Yang , born 1968, is the Founder and Chairman of the Board of ABBYY, Ph.D. in Physics and Mathematics, Laureate of Russian Government Award in Science and Technology.-Early life:...
. As of 2011, the company has over 1000 employees in fourteen offices in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
(Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
), the UK (Bracknell
Bracknell
Bracknell is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It lies to the south-east of Reading, southwest of Windsor and west of central London...
), the USA (Milpitas, CA
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
), Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
(Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
), Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
(Taipei
Taipei
Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
), Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
(Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
), Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
(Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
), Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
(Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
), Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
(Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
), and Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
.
The key area of ABBYY's development and research is text recognition technologies and applied linguistics
Applied linguistics
Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems...
. The majority of ABBYY products, such as document conversion
Document conversion
Document conversion is the act of converting one document's format to another, which allows the document to be read in many more applications. Documents can be converted into* other source document formats* consumer formats* structured data- How it works :...
and document capture solutions and technologies, are designed to simplify the transition from paper documents to electronic information, eliminating the most time-consuming and labour-intensive tasks such as retyping text and manual data entry. ABBYY also develops language products, which include ABBYY Lingvo dictionary software and solutions for professional translators such as ABBYY Aligner.
In 2007, a branch specializing in publishing dictionaries, reference books, encyclopedias and guide-books, ABBYY Press, was established. ABBYY also owns ABBYY Language Services, a high-tech translation and localization agency.
Awards
In March 2011 ABBYY was selected for KMWorld 100 Companies That Matter in Knowledge Management Award (for the fifth year in a row). In May 2006 ABBYY USA was awarded the FujitsuFujitsu
is a Japanese multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is the world's third-largest IT services provider measured by revenues....
Quarterly Innovative Leadership Award.
Company name
ABBYY claims that the company name means "keen eye" in the hypothetical reconstructed parent language of Miao–Yao, NuNu
Nu or NU may refer to:* Nu , a letter in the Greek alphabet: lowercase ν, uppercase Ν* Nu , the Japanese characters ぬ and ヌ* Nu , the male form of the Egyptian goddess Naunet...
, Hmong–Mien, Hmong
Hmong language
Hmong or Mong is the common name for a dialect continuum of the West Hmongic branch of the Hmong–Mien/Miao–Yao language family spoken by the Hmong people of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, northern Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos...
and Kim Mun groups of the Sino-Tibetan language family.
Products
FineReaderFineReader
ABBYY FineReader is an optical character recognition application developed by ABBYY.FineReader was designed as a professional-level application for converting scanned images, photographs of documents and PDF files into editable and searchable formats such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel,...
- For converting document images and PDFs into editable and searchable files
FlexiCapture
FlexiCapture
ABBYY FlexiCapture is data and document capture software developed by ABBYY, that automatically converts documents into electronic form. It was named as one of the trend-setting products in 2007 and 2010 by KMWorld Magazine....
- A dynamic data capture application that automatically processes multiple document types in a single stream
Recognition Server
Recognition Server
ABBYY Recognition Server is an automated Optical character recognition server and document capture software developed by ABBYY.It is designed to convert large volumes of documents into searchable electronic data.The software recognizes documents in more than 190 languages, including multilingual...
- Server-based software for automating document recognition and PDF conversion processes
PDF Transformer
- An application for PDF conversion and creation;
Mobile OCR Engine(SDK)
- A powerful software development kit which allows developers of mobile and small footprint applications to integrate highly accurate optical character recognition technologies that convert images and photographs into manageable and searchable text.
Lingvo
Lingvo
Lingvo, a family of dictionary software for desktop PC, PDA and smartphones, gives translations of words and phrases for 11 European and Asian languages, accompanied with transcription, pronunciation, word usage examples and the list of inflected forms. The languages are: Russian, English, German,...
- A family of electronic dictionaries for PCDesktop computerA desktop computer is a personal computer in a form intended for regular use at a single location, as opposed to a mobile laptop or portable computer. Early desktop computers are designed to lay flat on the desk, while modern towers stand upright...
, PDAPersonal digital assistantA personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
and smartphoneSmartphoneA smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
s, as well as print dictionaries. It gives translations of words and phrases for a range of European and Asian languages, accompanied with transcriptionTranscription (linguistics)Transcription in the linguistic sense is the systematic representation of language in written form. The source can either be utterances or preexisting text in another writing system, although some linguists only consider the former as transcription.Transcription should not be confused with...
, pronunciationPronunciationPronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect....
, word usage examplesWord usageWord usage is how a word, phrase, or concept is used in a language. Lexicographers gather samples of written or spoken instances where a word is used and analyze them to determine patterns of regional or social usage as well as meaning...
and the list of inflected formsInflectionIn grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
. It includes Lingvo Tutor — a flash-card utility for memorizing words. In its current iteration, Lingvo x5 is available in English-Russian, 9 languages, and 20 languages.
Reception
PC AdvisorPC World (magazine)
PC World is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal-technology products and services...
commented, in 2005, "FineReader 8.0 Pro is the best OCR
Optical character recognition
Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the mechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used to convert books and documents into electronic files, to computerize a record-keeping...
software we've seen" while PC Magazine
PC Magazine
PC Magazine is a computer magazine published by Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009...
gives it four stars out of five.
However, also in 2005, PC Pro
PC Pro
PC Pro is one of several computer magazines published monthly in the United Kingdom by Dennis Publishing. PC Pro also licenses individual articles for republication in various countries around the world - and some articles are translated into local languages...
gave FineReader four stars out of six, saying, "FineReader offers a decent compromise between the value and accuracy of Readiris and the power and automation features of OmniPage. If you need automation on a budget, it's the package to go for, but for home and occasional office use Readiris is the better package at this price."
In January 2007 the FineReader Engine (an OCR SDK) was selected for use in Ricoh
Ricoh
or Ricoh, is a Japanese company that was established in 1936 on February 6th, as , a company in the RIKEN zaibatsu. Its headquarters is located in Ricoh Building in Chūō, Tokyo....
's DocumentMall document management system
Document management system
A document management system is a computer system used to track and store electronic documents and/or images of paper documents. It is usually also capable of keeping track of the different versions created by different users . The term has some overlap with the concepts of content management...
.