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Participant
June 12, 2016
Question

Converting scanned Chinese-language PDFs to Word

  • June 12, 2016
  • 2 replies
  • 10762 views

I am a patent translator who translates Chinese patents into English.

I downloaded a trial version of Adobe Acrobat DC because I am looking for a solution which can handle scanned Chinese-language PDFs, converting Chinese text and exporting them into Word. From Word, I can then import the Chinese text into a CAT (computer-aided translation) tool, where I can do my translation work. After translation, I need to layout the document. (Patents usually have complex layouts, mixing illustration with text.) Then I save it back to PDF format in English.

Adobe Acrobat DC was not able to handle the scanned Chinese text, and instead generated garbled images which were not Chinese text. Is there a Chinese-language OCR (optical-character engine) which will plug into Adobe Acrobat which can convert Chinese characters from images into Chinese text? I am sure that there are good Chinese-language OCR engines around, and wonder which is best?

Thank you in advance.

2 replies

Karl Heinz  Kremer
Community Expert
Community Expert
October 31, 2016

This should work without problems in Acrobat - that is, as long as you have a good scan.

Did you set the language to Chinese (traditional or simplified, depending on the source material)? You can do this either by running OCR before you convert to Word, or as part of the export to Word:

October 31, 2016

I am sure using this pdf to word converter you will definitely convert as you want.

[ Mod: Link to 3rd part software removed - this is an Adobe forum, as long as Adobe's own software does provide the same functionality, we don't allow links to competitor's solutions. ]

This pdf converter is completely free and online. No need to download software, no need to registration.