1. An OCR trainable handheld scanner comprising: a scanner subassembly, the scanner subassembly including a vision sensor, a processor coupled to the vision sensor, and memory coupled to the processor; a user interface coupled to the scanner subassembly, the user interface including a visual display for viewing a live image of at least a portion of a mark to be scanned, the visual display including a region of interest viewable on the visual display, the region of interest to enable a user to position the handheld scanner for optimal X-Y position of the handheld scanner; a range finder coupled to the scanner subassembly, the range finder extending from a face of the scanner subassembly a predetermined distance, the predetermined distance to provide an optimal working distance for a scan, the range finder extending off of the face of the scanner subassembly substantially parallel to an optical axis of the vision sensor, the range finder comprising a diffusive material; and vision software executable by the processor, the vision software operable to associate an electronic image of the mark with desired electronic data and to generate a font description file, the font description file usable to decode a subsequent image of the mark.