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haley12125583
haley12125583
Participant
March 7, 2019
Question

Acrobat not recognizing text - treating everything as images

  • March 7, 2019
  • 7 replies
  • 14914 views

Since the update I have not been able to copy and paste text from PDFs, it creates large boxes all around the page and on top of each other, almost like its recognizing everything as images. As a work around I tried printing the PDF to Adobe PDF and at first I thought it was finally recognizing text but then it translated the characters like below.

            (that is supposed to be the word sustainable)

Has anyone else been having this issue?

    7 replies

    W
    wael_3098
    Participant
    October 1, 2025

    Same issue, i will try to install old version of adobe acrobat to be able to search the files again, vey annoying bug

    D
    Adobe Employee
    divyasin
    Adobe Employee
    October 7, 2025

    Hi @wael_3098  ,

     

    Thank you for reporting the issue and apologies for inconvenience caused. Would it be possible for you to share the pdf with us to better understand the issue? 

     

    Regards,

    Divya Kumar Singh

    A
    Amanda30593696u9hp
    Participant
    August 29, 2025

    Hi there, 

     

    I have found a workaround for this problem. It's August 2025, and this has become an issue for me for the past 3 weeks.  My workaround is the following.  Locate your document in its saved folder location, right-click on it, and select "Open with". I chose Google Chrome, but you can likely use any web browser of your choice. Once it's opened in your web browser, navigate to the print options in the top right corner of your screen and select 'Print to PDF'. Open your document in Adobe and scan to recognize the text. It should work properly now.

    lilliebeth
    lilliebeth
    Participant
    February 16, 2025

    I'm having the same problem. Nothing I do is making this work. I guess no one else has an answer either. How maddening.  

      A
      Amanda30593696u9hp
      Participant
      August 29, 2025

       

       

      I have found a workaround for this problem. It's August 2025, and this has become an issue for me for the past 3 weeks.  My workaround is the following.  Locate your document in its saved folder location, right-click on it, and select "Open with". I chose Google Chrome, but you can likely use any web browser of your choice. Once it's opened in your web browser, navigate to the print options in the top right corner of your screen and select 'Print to PDF'. Open your document in Adobe and scan to recognize the text. It should work properly now.

      L
      lauren_mene
      Participant
      November 21, 2024

      I am having the same problem.  Can anyone help?

       

      Abambo
      Community Expert
      AbamboCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 21, 2024

      So, please answer the basic question from @gary_sc here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/acrobat-not-recognizing-text-treating-everything-as-images/m-p/10387792#M136212

       

      If you can correctly edit a PDF is depending on multiple situations and not all PDF files are easyly editable. We always suggest to edit the source file and create a new PDF from there. Do not forget that PDF files were not designed to be editable.

      ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer
      L
      lauren_mene
      Participant
      November 21, 2024

      Yes, I did create a new pdf from the source file.  However, Adobe will not recognize the text as text, but rather as an image, so I cannot edit it or add more text, which is what I need to do.  I have Adobe Pro.  

        N
        Natalie3229055647qu
        Participant
        September 14, 2023

        I am having this issue as well!  Any solution found?  

          authentic_Essence5CF5
          authentic_Essence5CF5
          Participant
          September 13, 2019

          I have the exact same problem.  If I make PDF "editable," the text cannot be selected, copied, then pasted, even if I made sure text was "recognizable" using the enhance tool.  If I export the PDF to word or rtf, even selecting to keep flowing text, the text in new document is not accessible as text.  Every page, at the very edge, has all around the border, an object/image box which prevents the text from being copied.  If I try to select some words, the contents of the entire page can move around, even off the page, like it is one giant page-size image.  This happens in Windows 7 and Windows 10.  

            gary_sc
            Community Expert
            gary_scCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            March 7, 2019

            Hi Haley,

            I'm sorry but I'm having problems following the order of events here. For one thing, what version of Acrobat are you using? Is it Adobe Reader, Acrobat Standard, or Acrobat DC Pro?

            If you are using Acrobat Reader and cannot select text, it's very possible that you have a PDF that was not made "searchable" (where you CAN select text). Not all PDFs are searchable, it depends upon who created the PDF and how it was created.

            Also, if you included a screenshot, it did not make it into your message and as such I cannot see what you want me to see.

            So please, to let us help you, provide which version of Acrobat you are using (and what release version as well), what your OS is (and what release version), and also, where did these PDFs come from. Do you know who created them and how they were created?

            Thanks

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