Turn off / disable Convert to Text Option in Acrobat Pro DC

[Enlightened_worldview15A8]

Since the update on Acrobat to Pro DC, I keep having to click on Revert to Image, which would be fine but sometimes to revert to image, it undoes the changes I may have recently changed. The only workaround I found was to make changes on the picture (in Photoshop) then save the PDF, close it and reopen to make additional changes. I cannot stress this enough, I NEED the fonts to stay outlined so I don't get any errors when transferring postscripts from PC to Mac. And I'm talking about files that are exported from other programs, not scanned.

Anyone know how to disable the Convert to Text option?

[wfejessie]

Me too!!!!  I also need to revert back to XI because this is killing me.  I'm on subscription - how to I revert?

[ael93587601]

I would also like to see an option to disable the automatic convert to text.  Most times I just need to add a little text box and converting the page to text 1. is a waste of time and 2. often distorts my information thus resulting in converting almost every page back to an image.  The convert to text function works well, please just make an option to disable it when editing!

[capellae]

4 months passed, and it is still impossible to disable this shit. Why we hell I pay for the subscription if I cant off text recognition? Make it possible pls.

[Charlie Y]

This issue is frustrating me too. Being pre-press oriented, I very rarely need OCR for anything. Most often, I am extracting or editing images from PDFs. This automatic OCR thing is just like a pop-up ad for me - something in the way of my work. In fact, the new interface of Acrobat DC seems much less conducive to work. In the previous version, I had all my frequently used tools handy. Not so much now.

[XZ315]

I want to echo Charlie's sentiment about the tools layout redesign being horrendous.  This is a case of taking something that wasn't broken and trying to fix it. 

[XZ315]

Also, cropping is now terrible.  No one in their right mind would crop by sight and end up with a random page size.  If we're cropping, we want to crop to a specific size, so just cut right to the chase and open the crop dialog.  Or add rulers and snapping.  Really, this isn't rocket science. 

[Priyanja]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your patience. We understand that this is an annoying behaviour and therefore we have a solution for you. In the latest version of Acrobat DC, you can disable the "auto convert to text".

Just open any scanned PDF and click on Edit PDF. On first launch, Acrobat will convert the image to text. Now all you have to do is click on the 'Revert to Image' button on the Right Hand Pane. Acrobat now remembers this setting and will not convert any scanned document to text unless you change it from here.

[NHB42]

Many Many thanks for this simple but tricky tips!

[staceye84769006]

Cannot get to any of these prompts because as soon as my document opens in edit the recognition begins and then adobe shuts down as unresponsive.

[MichaelKazlow]

Make a scan of a trivial document. Turn of the OCR on this document. The setting is supposed to remembered for future documents.

[PMDigital_Teri]

THANK YOU. I agree with some others that I would like a clearer checkbox to turn this on and off rather than the more obscure sticky feature. But I will take this.

For me this is great. What I have to do with some problem files is convert everything to a high resolution TIFF file. Then sometime I want to edit the tif by cropping the page, deleting the image on a page, or opening it in Photoshop.

The auto-ocr when clicking on Edit PDF was a real pain, now this should help a lot.

[risharmaAdobe]

Welcome. For now, this will help you out of your misery. We will certainly think about Preferences option but until then I believe this sticky feature solves the issues for most of you.

Thanks

[Eager_character1549]

Well, this sticky "setting" that isn't really a setting is better than nothing, but it seems like you're going out of your way to surprise and confuse users. If Acrobat DC (required for work) is anything like the CC apps, I'm going to be sticking with my CS6 Master Collection for a very, very long time.

By the way, I found this thread when I found I could no longer simply crop a page without going into this editing mode and having OCR performed. Both behaviors are annoying.

[agarwalp]

Priyanja:

Thanks this is helpful, but I am trying to do the opposite, so please advise on how to do so - I have a license for Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, latest version:

1. How do I have all documents I convert to PDF also OCR? i.e. as I print an MS Word to Web Page to PDF, I don't want to take an extra step to then open the document and "Edit Text" to OCR

2. I used to have an automatic popup appear in Acrobat DC when I tried to highlight a document, "Do you want to OCR." I turned it off.  How do I turn it back on?  This is a more acceptable workaround in case #1 is not available.

thanks,

Pankaj

[MichaelKazlow]

Pankaj, Most files printed to PDF do not OCR as they are already text, only images with sufficient resolution can be OCRd.

[keitht5]

I too have struggled with this issue since receiving Adobe Pro DC last spring in my print shop. I am happy to see an off switch was added, I needed it off this morning.

[mr_r2145028]

The fact that I cannot disable the Page Recognition function is absolutely garbage. It is wasting a lot of my time and my boss isn't very happy about it. Thanks Adobe

[Maximumblast]

same here, please make this optional. all i want to do is crop some scanned pages in acrobat and everything gets messed up by the OCR. i love the built in OCR when i need to use it, but only when i need it.

[XZ315]

It appears I may have been overly critical of the crop features.  counter-intuitively, the "sensible" crop feature has been moved to the Organize Pages tab.  I don't know why there isn't a crop button in this tab, but if you right-click on a page and hit crop it will bring up the standard crop dialogue. 

[mikejn1]

Me too.

i really want to turn off OCR recognition. I will try the workaround of 'revert to image' on a trivial document.

But I have several documents that I have added text to and I dont want to revert to image on those. Each time the next page gets focus, OCR starts.

Really should be an off option.

I am marking student maths work, some of which is scans. I add text

[AnkitBal]

Hi,

If you are updated to the latest version of Acrobat DC, you would be able to turn OCR recognition off by clicking on "Revert to Image". The option is now sticky, and editing subsequent pages/documents will not run OCR recognition.

[NHDesigns]

That is not good enough, disable the feature entirely with an option in preference, and disable as part of the loading of "Edit PDF" Talk about blatantly ignoring or request to disable the feature entire. Could you not do these half measures, and add the option to disable OCR entirely across Acrobat DC.

[Rick Meikle]

Refreshing this thread, Acrobat Pro DC (CC 2019) does not behave as Adobe describes in their online user guide (link below), which says "To turn off automatic OCR: In the right pane, clear the Recognize text check box. From next time [sic], Acrobat won't automatically run OCR and convert a scanned document to editable text." Acrobat honors that setting for each subsequent file opened, but only until quitting Acrobat. Upon reopening Acrobat, the setting is lost and when going to the Edit PDF pane in the first opened PDF file, Acrobat always recognizes text on the first page and turns on the "Recognize Text" check box. This needs to either be fixed or an option provided to make it stick.

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/edit-scanned-pdfs.html

[defaultfv9rbli2zh04]

1.  Open pdf in Acrobat
2. Wait for the first page to be scanned, or cancel immediately (this time only)
3. Sellect Edit menu
4. Uncheck "Recognize Text" under settings (this will prevent future)
5.  Close and open any document.

[default586f04qon6hx]

This option is grayed out for me.  I have become extremely unhappy with Acrobat.  Get it together, folks.  I have a 1500 page document of scanned hand-written notes, no interest in or hope of ever doing OCR on them.  I just want to index them and add links here and there.  Every time I got to a new page, I get the "converting to text" action and then I have to undo it because to totally butchers the page.

It must be miserable to work on this team.