How do I deskew scanned documents?

[rankiniv]

I have a scanned document, a simple list of text. It's crooked, and I want to straighten it.

I know that the 'enhance PDF' will produce a list of options, one of which is 'deskew.' I've done that. It didn't help; the document is still crooked. Am I missing something? I just want to rotate the whole image by a small amount; I don't really care if it's automatic or I have to do it.

Acrobat Pro DC for Mac, Yosemite 10.10.5. The scan was with a cheap HP all-in-one, if that matters, but it shouldn't.

Thanks,

/s/ Rankin Johnson IV

rankin@briefwright.com

[try67 · Accepted solution]

Try running Text Recognition on the file. That should deskew it automatically.

[AadeshSingh]

Hi rankiniv,

You can refer to this link for help Acrobat Help | Scan documents to PDF.

Regards,

Aadesh

[Genki_Guy_Robert]

I'm in grad school and now get old, long (pre-Internet) scholarly articles with TWO columns at odd angles.  As far as I can figure out, OCR can fix ONLY HALF of the document.  The other half either gets entirely missed, or distastrously "corrected".   Should I attempt to split the document, screen shot one half (or EACH) page, then create a *new* PDF?  That could be exhausting for docs of 30+ pages.  

[S. S]

Hi @Genki_Guy_Robert,

Hope you are doing well. Sorry for the trouble, and the delayed response.

In case you are still looking for a solution, here are my comments on it.

You don't necessarily need to manually split and screenshot the document. Try these steps first:

1. Use "Recognize Text in This File" (Enhanced OCR)

   • In Acrobat, go to Scan & OCR > Recognize Text > In This File.
   • Click Settings and choose "Editable Text and Images".
   • Under "Page Layout", select "Both Columns" if available.

2. Deskew and Straighten Pages

   • If the text is at odd angles, go to "Scan & OCR" > "Enhance" before running OCR.

3. Manually OCR the Left and Right Columns Separately

   • If OCR is still failing on one side, use the "Recognize Text in This File" tool, but process only one half at a time using cropping:
     • Make a copy of the PDF.
     • Open the copy, go to "Edit PDF" > "Crop Pages".
     • Crop the left column, save, and run OCR.
     • Do the same for the right column.

4. Split Pages into Single Columns Automatically

   • Use Preflight (Acrobat Pro only):
     • Open Preflight (Ctrl + Shift + X / Cmd + Shift + X).
     • Search for "Split pages" and apply a two-column split.

Hope this helps.

-Souvik