Enhanced Messaging Management With Integrated OCR

International Journal of Micrographics & Optical Technology, 2004

j2 Global Communications, Inc. has announced that it has added OCR (optical character recognition) capabilities to its Messenger Plus desktop application, available to eFax Plus, eFax Corporate and jConnect Premier subscribers.

This software, valued at $100, is a free download for within Messenger for j2 Global's paying customers for as long as their subscriptions remain active.

With this OCR capability, it is claimed that customers who subscribe to j2 Global's paid services can easily convert faxes received through those services into a wide variety of editable file types. The OCR feature is powered by ABBYY FineReader Professional OCR software, which j2 Global has integrated into Messenger Plus.

The new OCR tool is said to enable j2 Global customers to reach new levels of productivity by eliminating the manual reproduction of scanned and faxed documents that require editing. FineReader Professional OCR delivers accurate and precise document conversion (from image to text) with format retention and layout analysis. Conversion to standard text-searchable file formats also extends users' archiving and sharing capabilities, as well as the ability to easily retrieve and re-use information.

"This new OCR capability represents yet another tangible result of j2 Global's continuous effort to deliver added value to our customers," said Hemi Zucker, chief marketing officer of j2 Global. "Our paid subscription customers can now easily convert faxes into Microsoft Word or other document formats, enabling them to edit and search the text. OCR is yet another reason why companies should choose j2 Global to satisfy their messaging needs. It also gives our advertising-supported free customers additional incentive to upgrade to j2 Global's paid services."

Messenger Plus with FineReader Pro provides superior OCR accuracy, recognition support for 121 languages and output to a wide variety of file formats, including:

* Microsoft Word

* Microsoft Excel

* Corel WordPerfect

* Lotus WordPro

* Starwriter

* PDF format

* HTML text

Messenger - with the OCR capabilities - is available free of charge to eFax Plus, eFax Corporate and jConnect Premier subscribers at www.efax.com/ocr or www.jconnect.com/ocr. It is currently available for Windows 98SE, 2000, ME and XP.

Contact j2 Global Communications. Web: www.j2global.com