Unable to recognize Korean in OCR

[Emily29519981t130]

I cannot get Acrobat to recognize a Korean language document using OCR in Windows 11. I have tried several different ways and it always returns the same error: "Acrobat could not perform Text Recognition on this page because: Unknown error."

The document is a pdf of a Korean scholarly journal article, and it does not have a prior OCR applied. 

I have tried:

• Recognizing the current file using Korean
• Selecting only a single page and then attempting recognition
• Turning the file into a tiff and then attempting recognition in Korean
• Cropping a page so that it only shows Korean without any footnotes prior to recognition

I then decided to try converting just a photo of a page from a Korean book that is jpg format and then enhancing the camera image before trying OCR. This also failed.

I checked out my fonts on my computer, and I have the appropriate Korean language pack. I also activated every font on adobe that came up when I searched for Korean.

None of this worked.

Please tell me there is a workaround. I'm at a loss on how to continue.

[Amal.]

Hi @Emily29519981t130 

I'm sorry to hear that you're having issues with recognizing text in a PDF file. I understand that this can be frustrating,

Let's try some troubleshooting steps to fix the issue. Firstly, can you confirm if this issue is specific to one PDF file or is it happening with all PDFs? If it's only happening with one particular file, we can try opening a different PDF file to see if the issue persists.

Next, let's ensure that you have the latest version of Acrobat DC installed. To check the version, go to Help > About Acrobat. Also make sure you have the recent version 23.01.20143 installed, you can go to Help > Check for updates and install it. After updating, please restart your computer and see if the issue is resolved.

Another solution is to try changing the language settings. To do this, go to Scan and OCR tool > Recognize Text > In this File > Language > Select the Korean language from the drop-down menu and see if that helps.

If the problem still persists, you may want to try exporting the PDF to MS Word and then re-creating the PDF from the Word document via the Acrobat ribbon. This may help fix any errors or issues with the PDF.

Lastly, you can also refer to the Adobe help page for further assistance: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/error-could-perform-recognition-acrobat.html

I hope these steps help resolve the issue, let us know how it goes.

Regards

Amal

[Emily29519981t130]

Thank you for your assistance, Amal.

First, I am working off a clean install of 23.001.20143. But, just in case, I uninstalled and reinstalled it again (then rebooted my computer). Nothing has changed.

I tried converting several English pdfs using OCR, and none of these have any issue in turning into a searchable document. The only problems come up with I try it with Korean (using the method you described: Scan and OCR tool > Recognize Text > In this File > Language > Select Korean language). Every time I do this, it produces the so-called "Unknown error." 

I have attempted this with multiple Korean language files.

I attempted the workaround in exporting to Word. Then I reconverted it back to a pdf. Attempted to recognize the text. Same issue.

I had already attempted the tiff workaround (the link you provided) before writing this post, but I tried it again. It still produces the "unknown error."

I also isolated a section of the file that was in English only and I attempted OCR on that page, and it worked (for the English portion). However, it still does not recognize anything in the Korean portions of the document. Clearly, this has something to do with Korean OCR.

I don't have an issue reading Korean text in acrobat which already have a prior OCR applied or exporting these files to Word. The issues only come up when I try to convert a Korean pdf file that has not be recognized or a image file with Korean text into a searchable text.

[Amal.]

Hi there

Would you mind sharing the PDF file in question and a small video recording of the workflow and the issue you are experiencing?

Also, please collect the Adobe CC logs https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-log-collector.html , Procmon logs (Win Only) https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/Labs/acromonitor.html  and share them via any cloud storage. Just upload the log file to the cloud, generate the link, and share that link with us for further investigation.

Regards
Amal

[Gary31276273l3jt]

All,

Has there been any update on solving this. I'm helping a person with the exact same issue. Would be great to know is there is fix for it yet.

Thanks,

Gary

[Jared31534873y6za · Accepted solution]

I had this same problem, and finally figured out a solution. Just disable the new adobe acrobat experience, and go back to the old UI. That fixed it for me.

[kglad]

@Jared31534873y6za 

thanks for that solution!

[Jared31534873y6za]

And now this solution no longer works... Thank you Adobe. The ONLY reason I got Pro was for Korean OCR. Thank you for making your product useless again!

[Amal.]

Hope you are doing well and thanks for reaching out.

You can find the option to OCR in Korean under the Edit PDF tool at the right.

Open PDF in the Acrobat application and click on Edit PDF at right.

Then under 'Scanned Documents' click on "Settings".

In Scanned document editing settings, select the required language from the drop-down of "Recognize Text in".

Then click OK to save settings.

Check if this helps.

Let us know if you experience any issues.

~Amal

[kglad]

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post if it helps you get responses.

<moved from using the community>