OneStep Reader

the app is also compatible with ios7 at time of writing, so you don't have to be on 8 to use it.

interesting that its not very usable on the plus I would have thought that would have been the absolutely best phone to use it on with its new image stabilization. very strange.

I'm having trouble getting documents into focus. I hit the view report button, and it says something like, "top edges visible rotated 2 degrees clockwise," so I move the phone slightly to the right, and then there's no report available. Also, when it says both the top and bottom edges are visible at 0 degrees, taking a picture only produces part of the document.

Does anyone know what's going wrong? Thanks.

I am not sure what the thing to do is when the top and bottom edges are visible, but about the field report, that feature is very unreliable, and I am on ios 7.1.2, speech often fails after a few field of view reports, I have reported it to them, and I would encourage others who also agree to do the same thing.

I've noticed the speech also fails sometimes when attempting to actually OCR things. Sometimes it works itself out, and sometimes you have to dismiss the app and relaunch.

I contacted them Friday after posting here. Their response was to send me a copy of the documentation (already found within the app) and to tell me to read the suggestions for alignment (already done). I've even tried using the tilt guidance and turning on the automatic picture, but that has only been successful once.

That explains why it doesn't take the pic even when the field report says it's perfect.

I've tried this app, and it works quite well on my iPhone 5S. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a good OCR app.

Until people get their heads on straight, the KNFB app is worthless. Why? They were stupid enough to not get their Android version out at the same time. This is not right all. They should make it for all since in order to improve accessibility, things need to be available on both platforms at the same time!

Hello Jordan,

With all do respect, do you use an iOS device?

The reason I'm asking is that I'm trying to understand: why does KNFBReader not being available on Android make the iOS app worthless? I'm really trying to see the other side here, but I fail to understand how one has anything to do with the other. It would be like me saying a very good Android app was worthless simply because its developer did not also release it on iOS. A good app is a good app, regardless of which platform it runs on. Developer dedication, to whatever app and whatever platform, is to be appreciated.

Your attitudes notwithstanding, a huge majority of the people who have posted here about KNFBReader find it to be a very worthwhile app. I know I do.

This app has quickly become one of my most important productivity and daily living tools. The simplicity, speed and accuracy with which KNFB Reader handles most of my daily OCR tasks is a relief. Where I used to schedule a block of time to sit down and work my way through a stack of mail, receipts or other paperwork using a combination of Prizmo on the iPhone and FineReader on the Mac, I now find myself processing such items as I get them because KNFB does it so quickly.

I find the app to be very flexible and forgiving compared to the handful of other point-and-shoot IOS OCR apps I've used over the past few years. I can hold mail at arm's length or toss a receipt on the countertop, point the camera in the general direction with a rough estimate of proper alignment, and KNFB usually manages to either locate and speak the text quickly or tell me nothing was found, in which case flipping the paper and trying another scan takes only a few seconds.

There are sertain OCR tasks which I still perform with Mac FineReader and/or my desktop scanner, processing large PDF files or using the ADF to import printed items that consist of more than a few pages for example, but probably nineteen out of twenty OCR tasks I now handle with KNFB Reader on my iPhone 5S.

"Tried it on the off chance as I have one, works fine, recognition isn't quite as good but it's infinitely better than prizmo and all the other ones."

it's like saying it is better than Taurus and all the other cars, what exactly are the others? Taurus is certainly not perceived as one of the best cars.
as a matter of fact, prizmo is mediocre at best in my opinion. sure it has some fancy features like scanning multiple pages, but as far as OCR is concerned, it is not very good, and it reflected in app store reviews.

Added support for iPhone 4S, iPod Touch 5th generation, iPhone 6 and 6 plus;
- Larger fonts now available for low vision users;
- Changes and bug fixes to improve performance on all supported devices.

Good afternoon,
I downloaded the app this morning, and tried to use it to read mail.
However, after the picture was taken, the app was not recognizing text. Anyone else having this problem?

About the getting warm and the battery, remember that things like tilt guidance if used continuously will eat your battery very quickly and probably cause the phone to warm up.
About the warming up, I wonder if heavy use of the camera, camera flash etc causes the warm up.
Also if you have the setting for flashlight always on enabled in settings this will eat your battery.
Remember that camera flash and this flashlight setting are different settings.
I have my flashlight always on setting turned off in settings, and the camera flash on automatic and I use the tilt guidance sparingly.
I have noticed sometimes the app takes ages to process documents I find in that case its often easier to try taking another photo rather than just waiting, and if that fails to exit and restart the app.
Personally I feel the app has been well worth it, I have used it to read letters from my bank and sort the post routinely for family members.
I have also used it to find information out about various medicines, I don't regret buying the app at all, and I am sure it will only improve with time.

Yes I agree the flashlight is always on setting could be labelled more clearly, as the switch name ends with on and the state can be on or off, Maybe it might be better labelled as flashlight, and then just have an on or off state, in fact I might suggest that.

but sometimes if you leave it always on you can have two much light, and get a sort of reflection or glare I think, especially if your taking photos of glossy surfaces.
I would say leave it on automatic, if you get bad results, maybe try off and if its still bad try on. That's why there are three states for users.

Lol James, you seem to really like throwing your toys out of the pram, I never said you were wrong, I was simply offering an opinion along with some advice about other factors to consider. This is a community where we all try to help each other, and your above comment certainly doesn't seem in the spirit with this idea.

James I am not even going to dignify your last comment with a response directly because of how aggressive it was, in fact I think I am going to ignore you now unless your making a comment I feel it relevant to come in on, I have no idea why you seem to have taken a dislike to me and decided to attack me I think its quite pathetic really especially as most of your comment had nothing to do with the app and was an attack on me. We are all hear to offer help and advice and there is no right or wrong answer, the camera flash settings are there for a reason, OK documentation might suggest leaving flash on all the time but this isn't right all the time, and I was suggesting it as being a cause of battery drain, as it happens I haven't ever scanned anything glossy so I have never needed to worry about glare myself.

The field of view report feature doesn't display at all, because it is self voicing. You'd think, with all of this pushing for braille literacy, coupled with the spread of deaf-blind awareness, that they would actually take such things seriously. That said, we've seen an update, and still no fix. Here's hoping it gets done the next time around.

Gene, I understand that the process of shutting off VoiceOver and then re-enabling it can be pretty annoying. You might want to try turning off speech (done with a three finger double-tap), which would allow you to use the same commands that you'd use if speech is enabled. You can double-tap the field of view report button and receive the necessary feedback. Once finished, just perform the three finger double-tap again. Hope that helps.

KNFB have stated they are hoping to get rid of non VoiceOver tts messages eventually,
Personally I hope this happens sooner rather than later, I don't see the need for the two voices anyway, OK yes one does give options to read buy sentence, paragraph etc, but I think we should be allowed the option to disable this completely and hide the controls on the bottom of the screen.
I would also prefer it if field of view reports were read buy VoiceOver.
Also, really the app isn't even using a different tts, its using the same voice as VoiceOver, just not the proper VoiceOver function.

I don't mind the TTS voice, although I do wish I had the option to disable it. One thing is for sure, though. The one in KNFB Reader is nowhere near as annoying as the one in BlindSquare.

My comment didn't seem to post for some reason.
The problem with losing a few lines is they could be important lines, and I just think this tts should be made optional for those who prefer VoiceOver and don't need all this fancy navigate buy paragraph stuff and who are happy with the navigation options offered buy VoiceOver.
It would be nice to be able to hide those play pause controls, and also to have pages turn automatically in multi page documents as already happens in apps like iBooks for example.
I just find those controls on the bottom of the screen break the flow of reading up and get in the way as you have to stop VoiceOver reading when it reaches them.

It's an opinion.

James, I really don't like your attitude and I find you saying I am whining offensive, I am allowed to express my view just as much as you are. Don't say those of us who don't agree with you are whiners because we are not.
I am not saying remove the alternative tts options at all, I am saying give an option to hide that panel of buttons on the bottom of the screen so those of us who don't want it can enable it, buy all means keep the alternative tts for non VoiceOver users though. You seem to dislike anyone who doesn't agree with your comments or points of view.

James again your missing my point, I am saying keep the options sure but give a setting under settings tucked away to disable the third party tts completely and hide that panel of buttons.
I find your comment about did they include it just to annoy alex rather childish.

There is no reason why the tts couldn't be left enabled buy default with the option to disable if the user wanted.
Anyway I doubt commenting on this thread will make any difference because KNFB haven't engaged with applevis at all, and I know there is no law that says they have to, it would just be nice if they did that's all.

Hello lovely people,

After thinking a lots, I've bought this app finally yesterday.

I was playing with it for a long and I found most of them success other than exporting feature. I tried exporting it to dropbox and even facebook, both failed unfortunately. Could someone guide how to do this? Or is there any glitch on that part?

Raajan.

No of course not. You iOS users can stick to Apple. Android has a lot more people using it than you really want to believe. The NFB has no idea what even equallity is since they are stupid enough to seem to like saying the iPhone is better than Android. Guess what! It is not. I have had 2 iPhones, and they were good but my Android devices are just as good. My S5 still kicks the iPhone out of the water. The KNFB Reader was completely stupid by not hitting Android at the same time. Stupid Stupid Stupid. Hell with that app just like the BARD app. We are working on it is all you will get if asked and that means never as far as I am concerned based on the fact that BARD has yet to appear. Oh BTW, I have a built in OCR on my S5 that works well. KNFB Reader is behind now.

Do we really need something like the above comment on this thread?
It doesn't contribute anything to app discussion, at the end of the day developing for android is far more complex because of all the different phones out there and versions of android, the development issues are far more complicated with android than ios.