When I Run Recognize Text in a pdf, the document text becomes distorted

[JBLT77]

I am running the Recognize Text tool in acrobat in order to create an editable pdf.  The text is the document is crystal clear but then after I run the recognize text function, the pdf text becomes all distorted as shown below.  Is there a way to prevent or fix this?   I think a workaround I found, but is time consuming is in edit mode, select each section of text and change the font from *Microsoft Sans Serif-5357 font to Arial font and then the text is no longer distorted.

[gary_sc]

Hi @JBLT77 , not sure but I have at least a directional guess to point to.

When you're in the Scan/OCR, once you click on Recognize Text, you'll see this:

When you go into settings, you'll see this:

Note that there are three options in the dropdown. Some of these cannot be used for legal documents, but if that's not your concern, I suggest you try these options until you find one that gives you the results you want.

If this works, let us know which one it was, Thanks!

 

[JBLT77]

So I chose the setting Searchable Image (Exact) and it made the pdf text searchable and preserved the text.  This however is not really what I want.  I actually want Editable Text and Images so that I can do more when reviewing a document instead of just using the commenting feature to highlight important text in yellow, I like to make the text Blue or Red or Bold, so that's when I convert it to an editable pdf. 

It is when I select the Editable Text & Images option, when the text in the pdf is recognized and made editable,  the output results in distorted text.  I don't recall really having this problem with other pdfs that contained a mix of text and images.  I really don't want to have to select every section of text in the document and then change the font that adobe recognized the text as to like Arial.  That is time consuming, but it does fix the distorted text.

[gary_sc]

Hi @JBLT77 

One thing I was wondering: I'm assuming that you did the scanning? What resolution did you do that at? 300 ppi? More or less? 

Although the focus of the following article I wrote for adobe a number of years ago is not your issue, there are some scanning tips that might be of interest to you.

http://photosbycoyne.com/Gary's_Help/Scanning/clean-scanning.html

Let me know,

[JBLT77]

It's not a scanned document.  It is a pdf I created from a Word Document containing screenshots.

[gary_sc]

OH!

Well, then, the resolution IS the issue. 

Look, there are several approaches you can work with here. If you are on a Mac, you can do screenshots that will recognize the text. As it is, you were able to recognize the text with Acrobat's OCR capability.

The next step is to convert to a Word document or copy the text and paste it into a Word document. Now, save that Word document into a PDF, and you should be good to go.

This may seem like too many steps, but the document you created is holding you back for quality. Trust me; this is your issue.

Let me know what you come up with and how it works. As it is, there is NO WAY, you'll be satisfied with what you're working with.

[JBLT77]

I don't have a MAC.  I have Windows.  I was using the Windows built in Snipping Tool to capture the screenshots.

[gary_sc]

It doesn't make a difference. I only mentioned Mac because I know how to do that on a Mac, I do not have a clue about Windows. But, if you look at what I wrote, I did say "As it is, you were able to recognize the text with Acrobat's OCR capability." So you can continue as I mentioned: convert to Word, make any adjustments you need, and then convert back to a PDF. Trust me, this is the best approach to avoid the problems you are having. Working with a Screenshot of text is very low resolution and you will always have issues with this approach.