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frankpackerphoto
New Participant
May 5, 2023
Answered

Removing hidden text from document - Acrobat standard tool is not finding it.

  • May 5, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 3649 views

Hi,

I have an odd issue with some PDFs that I have to extract data from, and I'm hoping for some support to unpick the problem.

The files appear to have text in them that is hidden in some way other than what might be considered normal. If the attached PDF is viewed in Acrobat, it appears ok but when I run a parser over it to extract the data from partular parts of the doc (using docparser.com, but I'm confident the issue lies in the PDF, not the parser) there is additional text appearing in parts of the doc.

An example problem area is the small table on the right hand side of page 2 titled 'Cott' with rows of 'Odd', 'Medium' and 'Heavy'. I'm extracting that particular area - just the table data, not the vertical title - with the parser, and there is text appearing in it that cannot be seen when viewing the doc in Acrobat.

 

I've tried the following in Acrobat:

Removing form fields

Running the 'Remove hidden text' operation.

 

Neither of these operations are finding that extra text and I'm out of ideas. Hoping that somebody can assist with removing anything that can't be seen without flattening the document to an image (resulting in the need to do OCR after, which is not an option in this case). 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Test Screen Name

The problem is in fact not hidden text. None of the extra text is hidden. Rather it is on the page but in a different place. Take a look at this pic. (No pic  in email replies).

Things extracted from the "Cott" box include parts of vertical captions, like "pe bre" which is made up from "type"..."break" just below the box. So this is one to give back to the text extraction people - or seek a different tool.

2 replies

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Test Screen Name
Brainiac
May 5, 2023

To analyse this - since Acrobat doesn't extract any extra text - we'd need the exact text you extract, and the exact options you used in your non-Adobe extractor (for example, do you extract by coordinate area)?

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frankpackerphotoAuthor
New Participant
May 7, 2023

The parser requires a bounding box to be drawn on the file and extracts the text that it finds there. This is exatly what is extracted from the document attached to this thread:

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Test Screen NameCorrect answer
Brainiac
May 8, 2023

The problem is in fact not hidden text. None of the extra text is hidden. Rather it is on the page but in a different place. Take a look at this pic. (No pic  in email replies).

Things extracted from the "Cott" box include parts of vertical captions, like "pe bre" which is made up from "type"..."break" just below the box. So this is one to give back to the text extraction people - or seek a different tool.

Bernd Alheit
Bernd Alheit
Adobe Expert
May 5, 2023

" I'm extracting that particular area - just the table data, not the vertical title - with the parser, and there is text appearing in it that cannot be seen when viewing the doc in Acrobat."

 

What text does you get there?

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frankpackerphotoAuthor
New Participant
May 7, 2023

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