OneStep Reader

All,

Going forward, please try to keep discussions in this thread on topic--that is, related specifically to using the KNFBReader app itself.

While forum topics naturally branch out from time to time, we generally ask users to please keep discussions in app entries related to the specifics of using the app in question. This is because people tend to look at the comments for an app entry to determine user experiences/tips/issues with an app. With that in mind, personal attacks and off-topic Android comparisons are not likely to be of value to the user seeking specific information about the KNFBReader app--especially in the long term when the discussion has long since ended.

Michael Hansen
AppleVis Editorial Team

What's New in Version 1.3

- Added text recognition for Turkish and Polish languages.
- Added user interface translations for Turkish, Polish and Danish.
- Added "tap and read" function on sentences or words for low-vision and users not using voice-over functions.

So from what I can gather, this seems to work more efficiently than Prizmo? I'm using Prizmo right now and get a lot of garbage along with the text from whatever it is I captured. Or perhaps it is because I need to practice taking pictures with the Prizmo app a bit more?

I have purchased it at Christmas for the lowered price and I find the application pretty good. Of course, one needs some training beforehand but it is quite easy to get good results. I have problem with automatic scanning. When I select this profile, the programmeannounces: "hidden camera" and no scanning takes place. How can I solve this?

Has anyone had any success scanning credit or debit cards with the KNFB reader app? I have not been able to do this, so I'm not sure if it's possible. Thank you.

I personally would not do this. The card is very very small and a Credit card near and iphone is asking for trouble since both work on magnets.

Unfortunately KNFB Reader isn't able to scan credit cards very well. However, if you add credit cards for use in Safari by scanning, that works very well. When you scan a card using that feature, it will display the information, that's when I copy down the information it's able to get. Once I do that, I just hit cancel. I don't use Safari on my device to purchase things. I only use that feature to get the information I need.

Hi, I know where the options are to scan a credit card in settings, but I am not sure is this accessible with VoiceOver? I haven't been able to get this to work at all, it doesn't detect anything, is the information on the side with ridges that is raised or is it on the other smoother side of the card? and should scanning be done in landscape or portrait?

To add a credit card go to Settings/Safari/Passwords and Auto-fill and click on the "saved credit cards" button. Once you've clicked on that, click "add a credit card" and then click on the "use camera" button. Now you just have to lift your phone away from the card and position the camera properly. When it detects the information, the phone will vibrate and you can see how much of it it was able to detect, in the edit fields.

Can anyone recommend the best way to use this app to scan receipts? I tried everything, but the awkward length of the receipts especially on long grocery ones is making it difficult and cumbersome.

C'mon! ooTunes doesn't have a free trial; neither does Voice Dream Reader IRIC. And having a free trial for an OCR app is problematic because it takes some people more time to get used to it than one might expect for an app that doesn't require exact positioning of the camera.
Ah well.

Get someone to buy you gift cards if you're so tight with a penny. Seriously. I get a lot of use with this. this reads junk mail, addresses on packages that come in for the five others that live here, so i don't accidentally open something that isn't addressed to me. I've done it, and people are kind, but still I wouldn't really enjoy that if someone did it. No I have nothing to hide. It reads phone bills, it reads bank statements,but if you're so set in your ways, lobby for a free trial, then see if you can handle it's uses.

So I'm not agreeing with you wanting a free trial I'm judging you. Pretty sure that's not the case, but opinions are like back ends, everyone has one. I simply suggest you try out the app, and if it doesn't work for you, it is possible to obtain your money back. I have when an app hasn't met the needs which I thought it would. There's nothing wrong with refunding your purchase, if it is what you wish. Lol.

I didn't think it was possible to get a guaranteed refund from the Apple app store in the U.S. if one didn't like an app.

That is one of the problems with the app store and some of the relatively expensive apps. If you don't like a one dollar app or you find it not accessible, you're not out much. However if you find that a $100 app doesn't meet your needs that is a lot larger of an investment that is lost.

I guess the way that some apps get around the large initial sticker price is to have "in app purchases" that unlock certain features or else they use a subscription model to make it possible for folks to give the app a test drive before sinking a lot of money into a purchase.

I've also heard of people having similar problems when they purchase an app and are quite happy with it, it is accessible, etc., and then a future upgrade of the app is not as accessible. That is even worse when you buy a high priced app that works fine and you're happy with and suddenly an upgrade breaks the app you bought.

Well, I guess it is not a perfect world. Fortunately we have reviews to read before we purchase as well as sites like AppleVis that can give you plenty of insight before making a major purchase.

--Pete

Hello Peter and Jason:
What a bout a case like the infamous Read2Go app I bought for 20 dollars and then Voice Dream Reader came along. I probably used the Read2Go app once or twice. What a if a free app came along and put KNFB Reader out of the market? That would feel lousy. I guess that's what life's all about.
mani

All,

At this point, I think it'd be best to please move the discussion back towards the specifics of using the KNFBReader app.

While freer-ranging discussions of Apple products, related applications, and the pricing of said products and applications are certainly welcome, we generally ask that users please hold these broader discussions on our forum. This way, users looking for specific usage information about an app can more easily find it without having to read through a lot of discussion that might not relate directly to the specifics of using the app at hand.

Hello, whether anybody facing this problem? or me alone? I can't change the language in the settings. It's just telling one out of 5 2 out of 5 or something like that. Instead of telling the language which I'm on. I'm using 5s with the latest KNFB.

Raaj.

I don't believe the KNFB Reader handles multiple languages yet.

I'm using KNFB reader. I saw that on KNFB settings. I've also wrongly changed the language by accident and ventured out for a sighted assistance for changing it back to English.

Raaj.

What's New in Version 2.0

• Now free to try for 25 pictures, full version through In-App Purchase;
• Stand mode added;
• Field of view report improved;
• Limit recognition and speech languages in the settings screen;
• Voice-over improvements;
• Dropbox synchronisation and backup functionality;
• General improvements

Whether any of you noticed, it is not giving vibration in the tilt guidance in this version? Or am I doing any mistake?

Raaj.

Vibration is working fine for me in the update, make sure you have the tilt guidance switch on, and that you have vibrate enabled in your iPhone settings. I have noticed the spacing between pulses in tilt guidance is much slower so your phone isn't constantly vibrating away like before you have to really wait a good second or two between pulses now.

Hi all, well looks like I got an unwelcome surprise after upgrading, I was prompted to use the unlock button which I did, and then I got an invoice through from apple a while later. So looks like maybe they haven't properly implemented detection of existing knfb reader users. So if you already purchased the app and are prompted to use the unlock button and do, make sure you keep a close eye out for an invoice from apple. when I used the unlock button I was thanked for my purchase, I guess that's how you will know if you have had to pay again. I have already emailed knfb reader support for a refund.

You probably haven't been charged again. I've seen this behavior before with some apps with in-purchase capability -- notably when redownloading the NHL app in versions prior to this year where one had to pay a fee for radio broadcasts.

The developers have now said that due to unforeseen problems the Try Before You Buy facility does not work in version 2.0 and that it will be “coming soon” in version 2.1.

I just went to the App Store, and I only get a button to purchase KNFBReader for £79.99. Is there a different way to get the trial version than through the Ap Store?

Oh, and it's showing the version as 2.2, so I think it definitely should have the trial version.

Woohoo! It's finally working with my 6S!

what are the results like compared to a 6 plus or lower spec phone? interested to see if the 12 mp camera makes a difference.

This is easily the most useful app on my phone. Worth every penny.

I don't see why everyone raves about this app. Perhaps there's something I'm not doing, but I can't get any useful results, and most of the time it tells me there's no text recognized.

Sometimes I can get enough text to let know what I'm looking at, but I thought this app was supposed to be better than that, like you could get all the text off a page and save it. I watched all their tutorial videos on YouTube, but they seemed set up to make the app look perfect, which I guess makes sense.

I used iTunes credit to buy it since it was on sale, but right now I kind of regret it. With as much as it costs, this. app. needs. a. demo.

I don't get how to use this app. I read the full guide and follow the instrucions, check that all corners are visible, but it keeps saying there is no text. Also, why is all the time vibrating like crazy? There is very little info within the app itself and I have no computer to check properly.

the vibrating is the tilt guidance, that should have been mentioned in the guide you read, the faster the vibration the more tilted you have the phone, when the phone is level vibration should stop, the app does work. did you read the full user guide not just the quick start guide? and you can disable tilt guidance if you want.

Hi
I've been having trouble with this app and was hoping someone could help. First, for whatever reason, half the time I try to take a picture the take picture button doesn't work. When asking a sighted person I'm told this is because the camera froze. Restarting the app fixes it but if I cant get a picture in time it happens again. Second, when using this for PDFs it seems to skip the tops and bottoms of pages even though I'm told they're perfectly readable.
Any help would be appreciated.

I just bought this app and the results I get back are great!!!! I'm not the best at taking pictures even though I use Tap Tap See every day and this now. But I just need to keep practicing and I'll get better. Even though I am not taking the perfect picture and a little text is cut off (that is on my part though lol) I'm vary happy with this app.

Hi all,
I am writing to give you all a heads up regarding some significant issues that I believe are present in the upcoming knfb reader release, I am a beta tester for this, I won't go into specific upcoming features though I personally don't seem any of them as particularly revolutionary or game changing.
a few days ago they posted the final release candidate build to testflight users which presumably means there are no more upcoming changes, I have tried reporting issues several times to the developers throughout the cycle both through the support email address and the testflight system, but I haven't received a response. I have certainly heard from there support email in the past so I doubt its that they haven't received my reports.

I just think that owners of knfb reader should be aware of the issues that are still present so they can make an informed choice about weather to upgrade or not, the issues are certainly not deal breakers but they are significant and I think given how much the app costs users have a right to expect a good quality app with as few bugs as possible, in my view the app certainly isn't ready for release yet.

so the issues I would like to bring to people's attention are as follows,
1. if you take a photo and no text is found in the new version you are still left on the reading screen even though it has nothing of value on it to read, users must manually switch back to the camera tab to take another picture, in the old version you were automatically placed back on the screen to take a picture.
2. the second issue I have to highlight concerns how knfb reader reads information, if I take a picture or access the help system I don't want to be forced to use there self voicing system to read information, I don't need it and would actually far rather have the option to totally disable it and hide the controls, I did suggest this to them several times over the years but without success.
But the issues I need to mention concern how VoiceOver interacts with text on the reading screen, if I have my phone in portrait mode and am flicking say in a document or email or some other app text is read to me one line at a time, but with knfb reader if I want to read text on screen with VoiceOver if I flick with one finger on screen VoiceOver reads it to me one word at a tine, flicking down with two fingers does get VoiceOver to read continuously,
but I don't understand why they have bypassed the default way of VoiceOver interacting with text.
the final issue I have to raise concerns the help system, when I go into the new help tab the self voicing system reads it as complete rubbish its missing out words, sentences and even lines it just reads as complete rubbish in places it certainly wouldn't give a good impression to new people buying knfb reader for the first time.
the strange thing is that VoiceOver reads the help fine if you flick down with two fingers and have it continuously read, but again if I want to manually flick on screen the help system is read by VoiceOver one word at a time.
I am amazed that no other testers have reported any of these issues to knfb reader like I have on at least 3 or 4 occasions throughout the testing cycle. also, there testing seems quite sloppy if they haven't picked up on the issues, if they haven't then they should have come back to me to get me to do more testing.

I tried lots of times throughout the beta process to report issues I found such as VoiceOver only reading one word at a time when navigating scanned text, but my feedback was utterly ignored. just be glad they took out the messaging system they were trying to add in to notify users of useful information, great idea in principal but poorly implemented. I can only think of two issues they fixed during the beta that I reported and don't know how many others did and that was a button labeled in both English and german with some other nonsense. I also mentioned a lot about how the app still keeps text saying no text found on screen rather than just returning you back automatically to the camera screen, I mean how is that remotely helpful. I don't think knfb really listen to our feedback at all. plus of course the self voicing system doesn't read the help documentation properly either missing out words and sentences which VoiceOver does read. oh actually to be fair to knfb I can think of one other issue they fixed in this new version and that is that alex now works again as my self reading voice of choice, though actually I would prefer not to have the self voicing system and controls rammed down my throat. but they claimed before this new version they couldn't reproduce the issue with alex not working. the alex issue was fixed in the first public beta that was out though so it wasn't actually fixed during the beta testing cycle at least in public. but I actually rarely use knfb now and use either seeing ai or prizmo go, though prizmo go I would hesitate to recommend, as I have found that frequently it confuses English for Chinese when documents are upside down and even when no useful text is found it still deducts credits from my account for scanning, I don't know if I will buy more when I use the ones up I paid for. I guess knfb could still be useful for sensitive documents after all when images are scanned for cloud recognition we don't know what happens to them or how they are stored. but I do increasingly use other apps these days.

I find that this new version of KNFB Reader is needlessly complicated. It is also still not very good at retaining the page format. Seeing AI does a better job for scanning a document page and retaining format and it is free. None of my clients who have tried this version like it at all and more are switching to Seeing AI.