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Make PDF Text Searchable via ColdFusion Web Server

bkapla1
Registered: Mar 11 2008
Posts: 4

I have developed a Cold Fusion application that allows users to upload PDF files. Not all users have the appropriate software to convert their scanned documents into text searchable documents.

I would like to know if there is a way to perform this conversion programatically at the time that they upload their file to the Cold Fusion Web Server so that all PDF file uploads are automatically converted to a text-searchable PDF.

We currently use Adobe Professional version 7 and Cold Fusion 8.

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 7.0.9, Windows
thomp
Expert
Registered: Feb 15 2006
Posts: 4411
What you are talking about is performing OCR (Optical character recognition) on a scanned image. There may be some server side OCR tool you could get that works with PDF, but I don't know. I'm sure that there isn't anything built into Cold Fusion for this.

OCR is built into Acrobat, so, you could have your users upload the PDF from inside Acrobat using an Automation script to do a full PDF submit. The automation script could "hit" the OCR menu item as part of the process. But you can't do everything from the script. The user would have to enter some data.

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
www.pdfscripting.com
Very Important - How to Debug Your Script

bkapla1
Registered: Mar 11 2008
Posts: 4
Does the free version of Acrobat Reader have the functionality to run the OCR to convert their scanned image? I had assumed that it didn't, thus the need for an alternate solution.
thomp
Expert
Registered: Feb 15 2006
Posts: 4411
No, OCR is an Acrobat Professional only feature. If your clients are using reader then you need a server side OCR solution.

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
www.pdfscripting.com
Very Important - How to Debug Your Script