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John PDX
Inspiring
January 6, 2024
Answered

Recognize text (English) not working

  • January 6, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 1489 views

I've tried using recognize text from the desktop (Mac) and mobile (iOS) versions of Acrobat on the attached file with no success.  It claims it was recognized as English text, but nothing is editable/searchable/copyable afterwards.  The PDF is very clean, not an ugly crooked scan.

Any tips on how I can get this to work?

Best regards,

John

 

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer gary_sc

    Hi, @John PDX. This is very interesting. The original document has screwed-up content* separate from what one can see. Amusingly, the ONLY thing I've found that is "copyable" are the red words "State Farm®" on the first page. The only thing I can think of is that this is intentional. Why? Maybe they do not want you to copy and paste. Why? I do not have a clue. It is tedious, albeit not difficult, to bypass this restriction: You can take a screenshot of each page and run that through Acrobat. You can print the document and scan each printed page. 

     

    However, the easiest way to navigate around this, since you are on a Mac, is to Open this document up in Apple's Preview application. Then, go to Print, and with the Print window open, on the bottom left corner, you'll see "PDF." Now, select Save as PDF. (I'd give it a "2" after the original name so you do not overwrite that.) Now, open this copy and process the new document with OCR, and you should be (mostly) good to go. (I say "mostly" because in my testing, on the first page, the kerning of "Farm" is not good, and I get "F arm." YMMV.)

     

    But why this is copy-protected is beyond my pay grade. I suppose you can ask your agent, but that's up to you. If you do get an answer, I'd appreciate it if you could DM me with their answer.

     

    Good luck!

     

    *Screwed-up content: content that is intentionally rendered, not copyable. 

    1 reply

    gary_sc
    Community Expert
    gary_scCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 7, 2024

    Hi, @John PDX, Yes, it is a very clean PDF; it was generated at the computer it was created from and was not scanned. The file you attached was OCRed and provided the strange content you're describing. Is this the file as you received it, or is this a sample file of what you achieved? If the latter, can you please upload a file as you received it?

     

    Thanks,

    J
    John PDXAuthor
    Inspiring
    January 7, 2024

    Hi Gary, thanks for the reply.  I had tried using Recognize Text on that first attachment.  Here is the entire original document as I received it.

    Thanks, John

    gary_sc
    Community Expert
    gary_scCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    January 7, 2024

    Hi, @John PDX. This is very interesting. The original document has screwed-up content* separate from what one can see. Amusingly, the ONLY thing I've found that is "copyable" are the red words "State Farm®" on the first page. The only thing I can think of is that this is intentional. Why? Maybe they do not want you to copy and paste. Why? I do not have a clue. It is tedious, albeit not difficult, to bypass this restriction: You can take a screenshot of each page and run that through Acrobat. You can print the document and scan each printed page. 

     

    However, the easiest way to navigate around this, since you are on a Mac, is to Open this document up in Apple's Preview application. Then, go to Print, and with the Print window open, on the bottom left corner, you'll see "PDF." Now, select Save as PDF. (I'd give it a "2" after the original name so you do not overwrite that.) Now, open this copy and process the new document with OCR, and you should be (mostly) good to go. (I say "mostly" because in my testing, on the first page, the kerning of "Farm" is not good, and I get "F arm." YMMV.)

     

    But why this is copy-protected is beyond my pay grade. I suppose you can ask your agent, but that's up to you. If you do get an answer, I'd appreciate it if you could DM me with their answer.

     

    Good luck!

     

    *Screwed-up content: content that is intentionally rendered, not copyable. 

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