Batch process files with ABBYY FineReader using AppleScript

batchProcess.scpt

-- specify input and output directories
set infile_directory to "/Users/doug/Desktop/inputs/"
set outfile_directory to "/Users/doug/Desktop/outputs/"

-- get the basenames of each input file
tell application "System Events"
  set infile_list to files of folder infile_directory
end tell

-- process each input file
repeat with infile in infile_list
  set infile_name to name of infile
  set infile to POSIX file (infile_directory & infile_name)
  set outfile to POSIX file (outfile_directory & infile_name)
  run_ocr(infile, outfile)
end repeat

-- main function: run ocr on an infile and save results to an outfile
on run_ocr(infile, outfile)
  
  -- identify path to ABBYY FineReader
  set appFile to POSIX file "/Applications/FineReader.app"
  
  -- set FineReader parameters
  using terms from application "FineReader"
    set langList to {English, Latin}
    set saveType to single file
  end using terms from
  
  using terms from application "FineReader"
    set toFile to outfile
    set retainLayoutWordLayout to as editable copy
    set keepPageNumberHeadersAndFootersBoolean to yes
    set keepLineBreaksAndHyphenationBoolean to yes
    set keepPageBreaksBoolean to yes
    set increasePaperSizeToFitContentBoolean to yes
    set keepImageBoolean to yes
    set imageOptionsImageQualityEnum to high quality
    set keepTextAndBackgroundColorsBoolean to yes
    set highlightUncertainSymbolsBoolean to yes
    set keepPageNumbersBoolean to yes
  end using terms from
  
  WaitWhileBusy()
  
  tell application "FineReader"
    set hasdoc to has document
    if hasdoc then
      close document
    end if
  end tell
  
  WaitWhileBusy()
  
  tell application "FineReader"
    set auto_read to auto read new pages false
  end tell
  
  tell application "Finder"
    open infile using appFile
  end tell
  
  delay 5
  
  WaitWhileBusy()
  
  -- the end of line character below is created by pressing OPTION+ENTER
  tell application "FineReader"
    export to html toFile ¬
      ocr languages enum langList ¬
      saving type saveType ¬
      keep line breaks and hyphenation keepLineBreaksAndHyphenationBoolean ¬
      keep page numbers headers and footers keepPageNumberHeadersAndFootersBoolean ¬
      keep pictures keepImageBoolean ¬
      image quality imageOptionsImageQualityEnum ¬
      keep text and background colors keepTextAndBackgroundColorsBoolean
  end tell
  
  WaitWhileBusy()
  
  -- close the current file
  tell application "FineReader"
    auto read new pages auto_read
    close document
  end tell
end run_ocr

-- close ABBYY
tell application "FineReader"
  quit
end tell

-- helpers to wait for thread to open up
on WaitWhileBusy()
  repeat while IsMainApplicationBusy()
  end repeat
end WaitWhileBusy

on IsMainApplicationBusy()
  tell application "FineReader"
    set resultBoolean to is busy
  end tell
  return resultBoolean
end IsMainApplicationBusy

call_abbyy_from_python.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

# pip install pyobjc
# pip install py-applescript
import applescript, os, glob, sys

scpt = applescript.AppleScript('''
  -- main function: run ocr on an infile and save results to an outfile
  on run_ocr(infile, outfile)
    
    set infile to POSIX file infile
    set outfile to POSIX file outfile

    -- identify path to ABBYY FineReader
    set appFile to POSIX file "/Applications/FineReader.app"
    
    -- set FineReader parameters
    using terms from application "FineReader"
      set langList to {English, Latin}
      set saveType to single file
    end using terms from
    
    using terms from application "FineReader"
      set toFile to outfile
      set retainLayoutWordLayout to as editable copy
      set keepPageNumberHeadersAndFootersBoolean to yes
      set keepLineBreaksAndHyphenationBoolean to yes
      set keepPageBreaksBoolean to yes
      set increasePaperSizeToFitContentBoolean to yes
      set keepImageBoolean to yes
      set imageOptionsImageQualityEnum to high quality
      set keepTextAndBackgroundColorsBoolean to yes
      set highlightUncertainSymbolsBoolean to yes
      set keepPageNumbersBoolean to yes
    end using terms from
    
    WaitWhileBusy()
    
    tell application "FineReader"
      set hasdoc to has document
      if hasdoc then
        close document
      end if
    end tell
    
    WaitWhileBusy()
    
    tell application "FineReader"
      set auto_read to auto read new pages false
    end tell
    
    tell application "Finder"
      open infile using appFile
    end tell
    
    delay 5
    
    WaitWhileBusy()
    
    -- the end of line character below is created by pressing OPTION+ENTER
    tell application "FineReader"
      export to html toFile ¬
        ocr languages enum langList ¬
        saving type saveType ¬
        keep line breaks and hyphenation keepLineBreaksAndHyphenationBoolean ¬
        keep page numbers headers and footers keepPageNumberHeadersAndFootersBoolean ¬
        keep pictures keepImageBoolean ¬
        image quality imageOptionsImageQualityEnum ¬
        keep text and background colors keepTextAndBackgroundColorsBoolean
    end tell
    
    WaitWhileBusy()
    
    -- close the current file
    tell application "FineReader"
      auto read new pages auto_read
      close document
    end tell
  end run_ocr

  -- close Abbyy
  tell application "FineReader"
    quit
  end tell

  -- helpers to wait for thread to open up
  on WaitWhileBusy()
    repeat while IsMainApplicationBusy()
    end repeat
  end WaitWhileBusy

  on IsMainApplicationBusy()
    tell application "FineReader"
      set resultBoolean to is busy
    end tell
    return resultBoolean
  end IsMainApplicationBusy
''')

infiles = glob.glob('inputs/*')
for infile in infiles:
  infile = os.path.abspath(infile)
  outfile = os.path.abspath('outputs/' + os.path.basename(infile))
  print(' * processing', infile)
  scpt.call('run_ocr', infile, outfile)

I have attempted to use this script and line 60 generates an error:

error "Finder got an error: Handler can’t handle objects of this class." number -10010

I thought it had to do with setting the volume paths to network shares, but I seem to get the error regardless of the path.

@chriscjcj interesting! Could it be that the location of your Abbyy app is somewhere else? Does /Applications/FineReader.app exist on your machine?

I would also add, if you're not opposed to it, you may find tesseract a little easier to work with. Using the automator approach above is kind of fun if you must use ABBYY, but otherwise I'd likely go with something that's intended to be automated on OSX like tesseract...

@duhaime First of all, thank you so much for the reply.

Here's what I'm trying to do... I have a Synology NAS and a Brother ADS-1700W document scanner. This scanner can scan directly to a network share on the NAS. Of course, it doesn't do OCR. I was hoping to implement an automated (or at least very easy) process by which I could point an OCR program at a folder of scanned documents, and have it dump the OCR'ed documents into another directory.

I do have ABBYY FireReader and it is located at the path you already denoted in the AppleScript. I did read that AppleScript can be finicky about how paths are expressed. (posix paths, etc.) So I tried many different ways to denote the path, but none was successful.

Thank you very much for letting me know about tesseract-ocr. I was unaware this existed. I will dive into it this weekend and see if it offers the functionality to get me where I'm trying to go.

I'm grateful for your advice and consultation. Thanks again! :-)

EDIT: I just noticed that tesseract-ocr can run as a Docker container. Synology supports running docker containers. Perhaps I could run this directly on the NAS. That would be fantastic. Getting there will be interesting. While I'm fairly nerdy, I'm not a coder by trade. We'll see if I have what it takes to pull it off. ;-)

EDIT2: I found this tutorial. It's six years old, but might get me there. I'll report back.