Inspiring

Answered

Prevent auto-OCR when opening Edit PDF menu

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I have a set of scans in separate files that I need to crop. They are image scans without OCR, and they do not need OCR. I just need to crop them, but every time I open the Edit PDF menu to choose the Crop Page tool, Acrobat automatically runs OCR on every file, which causes a forced delay while I wait for this inefficient app to run its task. Is there any way to prevent Acrobat from ever running OCR before I ask it to? In the past, this was the default. Now it doesn't seem like there's any way around it.

Bernd AlheitCorrect answer

Community Expert

You can disable OCR

J

jroster

Participant

Hi @adobe, could you please add an “up-front” control for the Acrobat OCR function -- so it can be stopped PRIOR to selecting “Edit” for a document -- in the preferences?

It is a waste of time, having to wait for OCR to do a horrible job, then needing to revert it, and only then being able to select the OCR check box to OFF in the Edit function. And, only then to address what we are doing with the PDF: even simple things like cropping, rotating, and so on.

For example, there are a LOT of PDFs out there with text that are scans of ancient, hand-drawn engineering drawings with handwritten text. They typically end up an absurd mess of OCR results. It would be more efficient (and less annoying), and at least handy, to be able to preempt OCRing in Edit.

PLEASE?? Thanks in advance!

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Anand Sri Bhattacharya

Community Manager

Hello @jroster

I hope you are doing well, and thanks for reaching out. Sorry for the trouble you had.

Acrobat currently does not include a Preferences-level setting to disable automatic OCR before you enter Edit mode. When an image-only scanned PDF is opened for editing, Acrobat automatically starts OCR to make the page editable.

If your Acrobat version displays the Scanned Documents options, open Edit PDF and clear Recognize text. That choice is persistent, so Acrobat should not automatically run OCR the next time you edit a scanned PDF. However, because the control appears only after Edit mode is opened, it may not prevent OCR during that initial attempt.

For the feature an up-front preference, you can file a feature request with the product team using the Acrobat Wish form.

I hope this helps, and please reach out if you need any assistance.

Regards,

Anand Sri.

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cauthier721

Participating Frequently

I can't believe that there isn't an option in preferences to check/uncheck OCR. Seems like a simple solution vs having to hit ESC every time I click edit for EVERY page. 😕😕

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AJRALT

Participating Frequently

HI All, this is a pain in the rear , and now even when I UNTICK recognize text , make a change and click control S to save the file the program DOES THE SAME THING when trying to save the changes or edited file, THIS IS SOOO frustrating ,

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KramKram

Participant

I've had the same frustration without an option to turn off the process, but as you would have probably found by now - you can press ESC as soon as it starts OCR conversion to halt the process. If you're then cropping the document, it should behave if you don't jump around to other pages in Edit mode afterward. Certainly not an acceptible change by Adobe compared to past control over documents, but a current workaround.

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Bernd Alheit

Correct answer

Community Expert

You can disable OCR

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meadows.enkAuthor

Inspiring

That doesn't work. Even when I deselect that, subsequent files still default back to auto OCR

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