Procurement dropped a batch of scanned invoices on my desk and I must convert them to searchable text for extraction b…
Open your scanned PDF document in Adobe Acrobat.
Go to the Tools menu and select Recognize Text.
In the Recognize Text dialog, choose Recognize Text in This File.
Set the language and other OCR settings as needed.
CautionFor best OCR accuracy, source scans should be at least 300 dpi.
Click Recognize Text to start the OCR process.
To export as plain text, go to File > Export To > Text.
To export as an editable Word document, go to File > Export To > Microsoft Word.
Choose your save location and complete the export.
Best practiceReview the exported text or Word file for formatting or recognition errors, especially with complex layouts or handwriting.
After OCR, you can search, select, and copy text directly from your scanned PDF before exporting.
This runs in the Acrobat app - there is no separate API for this task.
A regular PDF can contain text that you can select, copy, and search, or it can be just an image. An OCR'd PDF is a special type of PDF where text recognition software has processed an image-only page and added a hidden, searchable text layer. This means even if the original was a picture of text, you can now search for words within it, which is very useful for archiving and finding information quickly.
Acrobat shows this message because the page you are trying to OCR already has real, selectable text on it. The OCR feature is designed to work only on pages that are images, like a picture of a document. If the text is already 'renderable', OCR is not needed and will not run. You should check if you can select text on the page; if you can, OCR is not required.
If your scanned invoice is blurry, the OCR process might not work well. OCR relies on clear images to accurately recognize text. Blurry text can lead to many errors, making the document less searchable or even unsearchable. To get the best results, always try to scan documents at a high resolution, like 300 dpi, and ensure the original document is clear and well-lit before scanning.
For the best OCR accuracy when scanning invoices, you should use a setting of 300 dpi (dots per inch). While OCR can work with lower resolutions, 300 dpi provides a good balance between file size and text recognition quality, ensuring that the text is clear enough for the software to read correctly.