These forums are now Read Only. If you have an Acrobat question, ask questions and get help from one of our experts.

OCR PDF

SAHIL
Registered: Aug 3 2007
Posts: 2

My Dear Sir,
Please help me as this thing has taken lot of my time.
I have a need to OCR the documents. I have tried many ways to do it, however it seems that when I try to OCR an existing PDF it doesn’t give me the desired results.
I took one document of 12 pages & scanned it in TIFF & PDF. When I OCR’D it the TIFF version was way more accurate than PDF. The PDF was made using Acrobat & I scanned it directly in Acrobat Professional 8.1
We are dealing with certain Legal Documents & it is the need that the PDF should be made from the Original Paper, but if we can’t OCR the PDF after it is made it becomes impossible to work. Also the size of TIFF is so big that it takes too long to go over the internet.
Also I would highly appreciate if you could kindly tell me what should be the correct resolutions to Scan a document for getting the best results to OCR?
 
Best,
Sahil

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 8.0999999999999996447286321199499070644378662109375, Windows
tplumer
Expert
Registered: Dec 1 2005
Posts: 122
Greetings,

First, I'll start with the last question you asked. The resolution for a scan to OCR should be 200 ppi and the document should be grayscale (for best accuracy). However, this will create a fairly large file (even as a PDF). To reduce size, you might try the text or black and white only option on the scanner at a higher resolution (anywhere from 300 ppi on up).

As for accuracy, be sure to use the setting, Searchable Image (Exact) to get a document that looks exactly like the original document, but can be searched. The OCR may fail on some words in the document (depending on the original paper you scanned), but can always be read by a human.

I am a long-time Acrobat user, an employee of Adobe Systems, and Maine native. I have created training videos for Total Training, consulted with people to help them better use Acrobat, and developed new business for Adobe as a Business Development Manager