Re: Contract Bidding Question, PLEASE assist

From: Thad Smith (thadsmith_at_acm.org)
Date: 11/02/04 

Date: Tue, 02 Nov 2004 09:01:50 -0700

DE wrote:

> The job is thus: I have to take a scanned image file(of a hard-copy
> document), run it through a proprietary software program which converts the
> image file to a text file.
> Since this text file has absolutely no formatting, I must open the original
> image file and the new text file side by side and code the text file using
> SGML (precursor to HTML/XML) so that---when opened---it is a duplicate,
> electronic copy of the original (though in SGML format).

> QUESTION: they want me to bid on this. aka, how much $$$ would I charge per
> page (it wouldn't be hourly pay, but per page). I'm completely in the dark.
> Given this limited info available, what do you all would assume would be a
> reasonable rate?

I think it should be less than the cost to retype. Other than that,
you might might to get some test cases and see how long it takes.

Two thoughts:
1. Configure your editor with macros or hot keys to quickly insert the
most common formatting codes.
2. Do you need to correct for scanning errors? If so, that can
significantly add to the time to do the work. Getting samples is
important. The quality of the original document (and OCR) has a big
effect. I suggest running a spell checker, not to correct any
original spellings, but to catch scanning errors.

I have scanned and cleaned a few documents. When I was finished, I
don't think that scanning saved a large amount of time, relative to
retyping, but that may be due to the quality of the scan output.

[I would have sent this off-topic response by email, but the OP did
not include an email address.]

Thad

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