Skip to main content
michaelb16421837
Participant
November 19, 2016
Question

Pdf Search

  • November 19, 2016
  • 2 replies
  • 335 views

I am unable to search within some of my pdfs. They are scanned and I downloaded them from a website. Any advice?

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

CtDave
Participating Frequently
November 26, 2016

If the PDF content is only the output image of the scanner then there is no "text" for any search engine to find anything.

Perhaps the PDF needs to be processed through optical character recognition (OCR)?

Scanner output images of the hardcopy text can be OCR'd using Adobe Acrobat (Pro or Standard) - but not Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Both Acrobat's and Reader's included search engine can "find" / "search" OCR output.

Lovekesh Garg
Adobe Employee
Adobe Employee
November 21, 2016

It might be possible there is no such text in the PDF you are searching for. Or text is copied as artifacts(vectors).

Can you please share a sample PDF, so we can identify what exactly the issue is?

You can use https://cloud.acrobat.com/send  to share your file.

Thanks.