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Remove OCR from PDF

Forum Index > General Acrobat Topics > Remove OCR from PDF
2011-06-21 10:32:00
tal
Registered: May 19 2010
Posts: 3

Hello,
 
My problem is that I OCR'd many pdfs so that I could search through them. It wasn't until I was done that I realized the huge mistake that I made:
 
On output style I used: 'Searchable Image.' I did not realize this would change the look of the document- Adobe actually converted the text to a new font. The documents I have been converting are old, bad copies and so Adobe was not able to recongize all of the text. The result looks terrible. Font/size are different from word to word in some cases.
 
I don't have access to the original files- so I have ruined my only copy unless there is someway to revert to the original? I cannot present the PDF in its current form to my client.
 
Any hints/help you may have would be appreciated! Thank you very much!
 
PS I tried to use the 'previous version' function on Windows but there weren't any available so that is not an option.
 
I have also 'Examined Document' and deleted layers and that did not fix the problem.

My Product Information:
Acrobat, Windows
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2011-06-22 09:34:27
#1
lkassuba
ExpertTeam
Registered: Jun 28 2007
Posts: 3636
The option I believe you wanted to use was Searchable Image (Exact) or perhaps Clearscan (which creates custom fonts). Try saving a backup copy of your file. Next, if you have the Pro. version of Acrobat, you can use the PDF Optimizer under Advanced > PDF Optimizer (Acrobat 9) or Save As (Acrobat X) to remove the searchable layer. This is under the Discard User Data panel in the PDF Optimizer. Now, you'll be able to run the OCR function again after saving the file.

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

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2011-06-23 15:07:32
#2
tal
Registered: May 19 2010
Posts: 3
Thank you very much for answering. I am using Acrobat X Pro.
I went to: Save as > PDF Optimizer > Discard User Data. There wasn't a searchable layer box to check, however I did check every box (i.e. discard all comments, discard document information, etc) but nothing changed. The text still remains garbled-- some of it is a new Adobe Font and some of it is the original font. I went back and tried the other options... Discard Objects and Clean Up. That did not help either.Do you know of any other way to revert back to the original?

Does it make a difference that I originally ran the OCR on the document in Acrobat 7 Standard?

Thanks again.
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2011-06-27 04:35:57
#3
lkassuba
ExpertTeam
Registered: Jun 28 2007
Posts: 3636
The option I used was the "Discard hidden layer content and flatten visible layers" under the Discard User Data panel in the PDF Optimizer. Do you remember what OCR option you used in Acrobat 7? You might also try saving your PDF as a TIFF and then reworking your file.

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

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