Recognize text OCR

[Paul239760663cxh]

Hello, I have a pdf version of a powerpoint presentation and im trying to use the recognize text function in acrobat, but it is not working. All I want to do is use the cmd+f search function to search for words in the document, but the OCR function cannot seem to find words that are huge and very clear. They are part of a powerpoint slide, and I'm thinking it may be because the background is black and the text is yellow, but Im not sure. Anyone have any ideas how I can get this to work?

[Bernd Alheit]

Don't use black background.

[Paul239760663cxh]

I didnt create the pdf, so i cant change it

[Chris 486]

OCR works best when it's black text on white background.

Power point will let you retain text and fonts using the export function to PDF. Have you tried exporting the document rather than printing it?

That would allow you to keep your text and colors.

[Paul239760663cxh]

Its not my document so I cant edit the colors or export it with different functions

[Chris 486]

Can you provide a screenshot of the page your are having trouble with? There may be an option in the scan & ocr tool that may help.

[Paul239760663cxh]

I attched an example of the pdf. When I run recognize text OCR on this pdf and then search for the words "slide" or "one", it cant find either. 

I tried exporting it as a powerpoint, but when i open it up in powerpoint, i cant edit the text or change the background color because its just rendered as an image on a new slide.

[Bernd Alheit]

May be that you can change the colors in Photoshop. 

[Paul239760663cxh]

There are hundreds of slides that i need to search through, so it would be really annoying if I had to change the color of each slide individually in photoshop

[Paul239760663cxh]

What sorts of options in the scan & ocr tool were you thinking of?

[Chris 486]

Thanks for sending that example page over. The black background and yellow text is throwing it off. I was hoping the enhance option in the scan tool would help the contrast but it doesn't seem to be able to separate that. Adobe's OCR is meant to read scanned black and white documents. (black test on white background) It does that really well like a good paring knife can skin fruit. But it's not much of a multi tool in the same sense a pairing knife isn't a hammer. 

You'll need to request that the creator of that powerpoint exports it rather than printing it flattened. There may be other OCR programs that can do this better but the primary role of these OCR function is for Black text on white backgrounds.

[Paul239760663cxh]

Thanks, I figured that was probably the issue. Do you know of any program that might be able to invert the colors to the entire pdf presentation all at once? Maybe that way the OCR could read it if it was a white background with blue text...

[Chris 486]

Blue text on white will work. The fastest way I can think of (at the moment) is in the edit menu. Select Edit using... and select your editor of choice. invert the color and save the change. It's an extra step but faster than exporting and importing. The ocr works on your example you submitted that way.

[Paul239760663cxh]

Thanks again! Unfortunately the edit menu is grayed out and I cant select anything in it. Im not sure why. 

[Chris 486]

I know it's a silly ask, but when you select an item on your page you want to edit, is the full menu still grayed out? The menu is context aware. Everything will be grayed out until you select an object or text you want to edit.