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Black & White scan to PDF file - horrible output with v9 PRO Extended

Forum Index > PDF Creation > Black & White scan to PDF file - horrible output with v9 PRO Extended
2008-06-28 17:02:24
maryeleek
Registered: Jun 27 2008
Posts: 4

I've been using Adobe Acrobat 6 to scan newspaper clippings of obituaries we're archiving for a historical society. Good clean black and white scans that are easy to OCR.

Now I've upgraded to Adobe Acrobat v9 Pro extended and my black and white scans are horrible. They are almost black, text can't even be read. I've tried every setting combination, used the default settings, etc., and just awful scans totally unacceptable for our purpose.

Can anyone suggest settings I can check that might make this better. I can't believe v6 would do a black and white scan so much better than v9. It must be something I'm not setting properly. The scanner I'm using is an Epson Perfection 4180 Photo scanner, although it's used with both software packages so can't think that would be the problem. Windows XP Pro w/ all updates.

My thanks for any advice or suggestions to help get me going. There are many of then new features in v9 I like very much, but will have to return to v6 if I can't get this figured out.

Mary Fowler Leek

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2008-07-01 21:54:04
#1
abhigyan
Expert
Registered: Nov 29 2007
Posts: 223
Are you using Acrobat to Scan? or are you scanning with some other software and using Acrobat to OCR?
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2008-07-02 05:17:02
#2
maryeleek
Registered: Jun 27 2008
Posts: 4
I'm scanning through Acrobat v9 PDF creation via scanner. All my scans through Acrobat v9 are fine except for the newspaper clippings scans.

In older versions of Acrobat, I could scan the newspaper clippings in Black and White and the text would be black and the background white. Now the background is so splotchy, like a much recopied photocopy of something, we can't even make out the text. It is impossible to use as is.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

Mary
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2008-07-03 05:39:39
#3
abhigyan
Expert
Registered: Nov 29 2007
Posts: 223
Try using the Acrobat option to use scanner's native interface for scanning
File > Create PDF > From Scanner > Custom Scan > Scanner - options
Select "Show Scanner's Native Interface" from "user Interface" dropdown.
Click On "Ok".
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2008-07-03 12:58:05
#4
maryeleek
Registered: Jun 27 2008
Posts: 4
Well, can you believe it. That works much better and creates a usable scan of a newspaper clipping.

Thank you so much for your helpful assistance.

Mary
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2008-07-09 17:57:06
#5
michaelejahn
Registered: Apr 26 2006
Posts: 232
@ Maryeleek

When someone answers your question and it solves your problem, it is customary to tag this as "answered" - this helps people quickly find questions that have answers (so they can know too!) and also prevents people who might answer from wasting their time (as the question was answered, but not flagged as such...

Michael Jahn
Application Support Specialist
Compose Systems Inc, USA.
4740 Northgate Blvd. Suite 100
Sacramento, CA 95834
Tel: (916) 920-3838 ext 102
Fax: (916) 923-6776
Email: michaelejahn [at] composeusa [dot] com
Web: www.composeusa.com

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