Is there a good program to convert hand written letters into text?

I have Adobe and tried scanning it a few then running OCR but it wasn't helpful. Google Lens was moderately helpful.

There's a LOT of letters and I was hoping to somehow attach a text version to each one in some kind of searchable format.

Can you read them? If so, speech to text will be easiest with you just reading the letters out loud.

I was curious so I asked ChatGPT to read this letter. It might be cumbersome, but it works.

Quote:

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Certainly! Here's a transcription of the letter:

DEAR DAD,
$CHOOL I$ REALLY GREAT. I AM MAKING LOT$ OF FRIEND$ AND $TUDYING VERY HARD.
WITH ALL MY $TUFF, I $IMPLY CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING I NEED, $O IF YOU WANT, YOU CAN JU$T $END ME A CARD, A$ I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU.
LOVE, YOUR $ON

The dollar signs ($) are used humorously in place of the letter "S".

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Not easily- it's quite cumbersome. I think I'd have better success typing them from the scanned images.

Here's one of the more legible (and recent) ones.

Oof, old fashioned gramdma cursive. I can read most of the words though using context of the simpler words around them.

That's ancient Boomer style analog communication. Many of us can still read it but time is running out. You may need Gen X to help as they are familiar with the medium, dialect, and sentence structures.

On a serious note, I'd read those aloud and then make manual corrections as needed.

Have you looked into Amazon Textract?

Close relative to Amazon Comprehend, which is a Natural Language Processing ML service.

Seems like you can use both of these to get what you want done.

Here is what I get out of GPT-4o:

Oct 23-1978

Dear Folks, I am sending this to Betsy but it is to all of you. I know Dewey Sr. isn't back to his apartment. I don't know if he is still there. I know how hard it is to live alone. I am staying on the farm this winter if I can, but if it gets too hard will get Patsy. Alice and Alice moved to town after Alice had trouble in July. They had a retired nurse taking care of them on the farm. She persuaded them to move with her to Lawton. I believe the sis had to go to the hospital. She bloated up with fluid and had also had enlarged heart. They gave her medicine to help relieve but she was too weak just passed away in few days. Alice is able to walk with crutches or a cane. Of course she is upset about Nellie. She is being up very well and is staying on with the nurse. I think her nurse is a good and competent person.

I hope all of you are well. God Blessing be on all of you.

All our love Cansy

P.S. I told Marion I would write you folks. I am sending Alice address

Alice Payne
2119 Arlington
Lawton Okla

That's impressive