Can't Edit PDF, it is always an image

[Jeff233670067jfv]

I am trying to edit a PDF in Adobe Acrobat Standard. The PDF comes in as an image. I do the scan & OCR, it finds all the text on the PDF, but when I click on Edit a PDF I keep getthing this message. "Acrobat has detected that this page doesn't have editable text. If it is a scanned paghe, conver it to another formate using the Export PDF tool." But the PDF is not a scanned image.

The other thing I noticed is in the Edit a PDF section in the gear icon, there is a check box for reconignze scanned text, but it is grayed out.

I also tried running the scan & ORC saving the PFD and re-opening it in Adobe but I still can't edit any of the text. The PDF still appears as one large image.

[creative explorer]

@Jeff233670067jfv You're on the right track with Scan & OCR, as that's Acrobat's way of converting those pixels into selectable and editable text. However, if it's still appearing as one large image even after running OCR and re-saving, it suggests the OCR process might not be completing successfully, or the file has some underlying protection preventing the edit mode from activating. 

A different work-around is, you can upload your PDF (even if it's an image-based PDF) to Google Drive. Then, right-click the PDF file in Google Drive and choose "Open with" > "Google Docs." Google Docs has its own built-in OCR capability that often does a decent job of extracting text from image-based PDFs, creating an editable Google Doc or re-save as a PDF again to bring back into Acrobat!

I know it's a work-around! 

[Jeff233670067jfv]

Thanks for the sugestion but I need to make this work in Adobe for our end users.

[Bernd Alheit]

Which OCR option do you use?

[Jeff233670067jfv]

I am not sure by what you mean.

[Bernd Alheit]

I mean this:

[Jeff233670067jfv]

For the ourput I only have Searchable Image or Searchable Image (Excat).

But when I do the OCR I can select the text in the PDF but when I go to Edit a PDF the OCR data is not carried over.

[Bernd Alheit]

Searchable image means an image with invisible text behind the image.

May be that the other option is not available in Acrobat Standard.

[Jeff233670067jfv]

I spoke to support and they are telling me that the editable text and images are a pro only feature. But the odd part is if I try to edit the PDF in web Adobe that works just fine.

[Meenakshi Negi]

Hi Jeff233670067jfv,

Thank you for reaching out, and sorry about the trouble.

We checked that you have an Acrobat Pro subscription listed under your business account. Could you please share the screenshot of the Acrobat version currently installed on the machine? You may use the steps suggested here: https://adobe.ly/43oqbHI. 

Please share the screen recording of the editing you do in the PDF. Please share the PDF so we can check what might be the reason you get the error message.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

[Jeff233670067jfv]

My account has an Adobe Standard license. The version I am running is 2025.001.20474. I spoke to Adobe support and they said the PDF generated by our ERP is being treated as an image. But support could not dell me why I can edit the PDF via the web Adobe but not the desktop application.

[Tariq Ahmad Dar]

Hi @Jeff233670067jfv, 

All I can think is that the Acrobat Standard subscription license doesn't have OCR functionality, which is required while editing Flattened, Scanner, or image documents. Check feature comparison here: https://adobe.ly/3HGlLmT

And Acrobat Web is running OCR in this case. I hope that answers the question. Let us know if you have further questions. 

~Tariq