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Participating Frequently
February 25, 2024
Answered

Text recognition not working

  • February 25, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 1603 views

Hi,

I have a PDF file in Acrobat which I have run text recognition on and afterwards it appears to work as expected as I am able to search for words which Acrobat picks up.

 

Wwhen I send this to clients and colleagues, they are unable to search for text.  They are using Foxit reader too.

 

Once a PDF has been through the process of recognising text, shouldn't it work regardless of the reader being used???

 

Thanks

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Abambo
quote

Once a PDF has been through the process of recognising text, shouldn't it work regardless of the reader being used???


By @cosmarchy

Yes, it should work regardless of the reader being used. But I admit, this is the easy and incorrect answer.

 

If the reader respects the PDF standard, it should work. Doing an OCR on a scanned document for search proposes uses an (at the time of the introduction) innovative process. The document stays untouched, the text will be put invisibly on the scan. So the original image is still available to the user, but they can search, and they will not see any possible OCR error due to a difficult to OCR file. But if the reader used ignores that additional text layer, then search does not work and you can do nothing about that.

 

You should test your document with a third-party reader if that is important.

2 replies

Abambo
AbamboCorrect answer
Braniac
February 25, 2024
quote

Once a PDF has been through the process of recognising text, shouldn't it work regardless of the reader being used???


By @cosmarchy

Yes, it should work regardless of the reader being used. But I admit, this is the easy and incorrect answer.

 

If the reader respects the PDF standard, it should work. Doing an OCR on a scanned document for search proposes uses an (at the time of the introduction) innovative process. The document stays untouched, the text will be put invisibly on the scan. So the original image is still available to the user, but they can search, and they will not see any possible OCR error due to a difficult to OCR file. But if the reader used ignores that additional text layer, then search does not work and you can do nothing about that.

 

You should test your document with a third-party reader if that is important.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer
cosmarchyAuthor
Participating Frequently
February 25, 2024

Hi,

I thought it strange that it wouldnt work on other readers but had to ask anyway 🙂

I got the clients and colleagues to try another reader and they could now search so as pointed out, it looks like an issue with Foxit.

 

Thanks for your help.

Abambo
Braniac
February 25, 2024
quote

it looks like an issue with Foxit.


By @cosmarchy


Sure, the PDF file is the same for both readers…

 

You're welcome.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer
try67
Braniac
February 25, 2024

Yes, it should. Sounds like an issue with Foxit...