I am downloading a lot of PDFs from the New York Times archives (c. 1855) for some historical research I'm doing.
I assume the Times has OCR'd their images of these old articles because the text is word-searchable online.
Here are my questions, in descending order of the elation they might evoke. (BTW, I'm on a Mac, running Leopard.)
1. Is the OCR text somehow hidden in the downloaded PDFs and how would I discover and retrieve it, using Acrobat Pro 9?
2. Would it be worth trying Acrobat's built in OCR tools? (Mid-19c. Times type is pretty wavy and clunky.)
3. Given that Macs can now word-search documents' body text, can I at least put key words in text box notes or stickies on these PDFs, to help me find important passages? (I've tried both text boxes and stickies but it didn't work.)
Thanks.
Making image PDFs word searchable on a Mac
2011-03-11 16:59:49
My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 9.4.2, Macintosh
Acrobat Pro 9.4.2, Macintosh
2011-03-15 18:37:42
#2
Thanks, AnnaLu, that worked!
And I may try Acrobat's OCR tool.
Here's an extra credit question. Do you know of any book or online or magazine article that could easily be entitled: "How OCR is revolutionizing historical research." Or, "OCR, the latest desktop-computer software." Or, "How old texts are yielding their secrets to OCR." (Feel free to use that last one.)
I'd've clicked on Accept this answer, but was afraid I'd lose the opportunity to ask this follow up.
No biggie, this one.
And I may try Acrobat's OCR tool.
Here's an extra credit question. Do you know of any book or online or magazine article that could easily be entitled: "How OCR is revolutionizing historical research." Or, "OCR, the latest desktop-computer software." Or, "How old texts are yielding their secrets to OCR." (Feel free to use that last one.)
I'd've clicked on Accept this answer, but was afraid I'd lose the opportunity to ask this follow up.
No biggie, this one.
2011-03-16 06:22:01
#3
Acrobat's OCR tools helps me for some ressurections:
http://abracadabrapdf.net/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=627http://abracadabrapdf.net/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=619http://abracadabrapdf.net/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=618(Clic yellow links to download)
;-)
http://abracadabrapdf.net/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=627http://abracadabrapdf.net/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=619http://abracadabrapdf.net/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=618(Clic yellow links to download)
;-)
2011-03-16 08:45:08
#4
Thanks, Merlin. I'll give the OCR tools a try.
Your site and those links look interesting but are in French, which I "no parlay voo."
Your site and those links look interesting but are in French, which I "no parlay voo."
2011-03-19 14:18:11
#5
I would search on "John Warnock" and "Octavo" and see if any articles come up that meet your needs. Here is an article to start your research:
http://www.adobe.com/ap/epaper/spotlights/octavo/
http://www.adobe.com/ap/epaper/spotlights/octavo/
2011-03-23 15:23:23
#6
Thanks for the tips. I found two interesting sites:
http://www.adobe.com/ap/epaper/spotlights/octavo/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/02/it-turns-out-that-google-even-has-a-competitive-advantage-in-scanning-books/
Signing off on this subject now. I'd close out thread but don't know how.
http://www.adobe.com/ap/epaper/spotlights/octavo/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/02/it-turns-out-that-google-even-has-a-competitive-advantage-in-scanning-books/
Signing off on this subject now. I'd close out thread but don't know how.
2011-03-24 07:05:48
#7
Thanks, Merlin. I'll give the OCR tools a try.
Your site and those links look interesting but are in French, which I "no parlay voo."
Yes, Acrobat's OCR cannot automatically translate OCRized documents…Your site and those links look interesting but are in French, which I "no parlay voo."
We should ask Adobe to add this feature!
:-)))
French is not difficult to learn, more than half of English language words are common with French language.
;-)
In any case, you can test my portfolios by searching words like "John Warnock", "Adobe", "Bill Gates", "Microsoft", "Steve Job", "Apple", etc. Those words are also shared in both languages.
2011-03-26 21:51:11
#8
I'm back with a follow up question. I tried Googling this but didn't get a satisfactory answer.
Do Acrobat Pro 9's OCR tools allow one to convert text in a PDF image *on screen*?
I seem to recall reading somewhere that you can scan a hard copy, paper sample that will "teach" the OCR tool to "read" such type on screen thereafter. But I lost track of where I read this — or I'm imagining it!
I'd be willing to buy a plug-in or third party vendor tool. For instance, I saw this online for $113:
ABBYY FineReader Express Edition for Mac. http://www.abbyy.com/finereader_for_mac/
But couldn't figure out from the description if it can do this.
Maybe I can't find an answer online because it can't be done!
I just have too many 1855 New York Times articles to scan them all. If I can't OCR them on screen, I just might as well keyboard the relevant passages I need.
Do Acrobat Pro 9's OCR tools allow one to convert text in a PDF image *on screen*?
I seem to recall reading somewhere that you can scan a hard copy, paper sample that will "teach" the OCR tool to "read" such type on screen thereafter. But I lost track of where I read this — or I'm imagining it!
I'd be willing to buy a plug-in or third party vendor tool. For instance, I saw this online for $113:
ABBYY FineReader Express Edition for Mac. http://www.abbyy.com/finereader_for_mac/
But couldn't figure out from the description if it can do this.
Maybe I can't find an answer online because it can't be done!
I just have too many 1855 New York Times articles to scan them all. If I can't OCR them on screen, I just might as well keyboard the relevant passages I need.
Good luck!