Best way to open scanned editable pdf

[Ira Glunts]

I have chapters from a book in a series pdf files.  When I open the file in InDesign the words that were in italics appear as regular text. Is there a way to perserve the words that are italicized.  I opened the pdf directly in InDesign and it was automaticall converted into an InDesign file.

Thanks.

[BobLevine]

OCR'ed text is going to require a lot of work. If you're looking for magic, stop now, it doesn't exist.

[Jeffrey_Smith]

Open the scanned document in Acrobat, and save as Rich Text Format. Then import the rtf file into Indesign. This method can preserve italics, depending on the OCR's ability to recognize normal from italics.

[Ira Glunts]

Thanks.  I would like to try it.  I made an rtf file.  How do I get it into InDesign.

[Jeffrey_Smith]

File > Place - [select rtf file]

[Barb Binder]

Hi Ira!

As per @Jeffrey_Smith, I also recommend exporting the text out of the PDF and cleaning it up in Word—this includes confirming the italics remain in the document—and not opening the PDF in InDesign. Then create a new InDesign document, and use File > Place to import the Word file.

Plan on spending a fair amount of time on that first chapter, setting up parent pages, styles, etc with the understanding that you can use that first file as a template to speed up the layout of the second and subsequent chapters. I know I've mentioned this before but InDesign isn't intuitive and training isn't optional for most people.

To get up and running on InDesign basics: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/indesign-2025-essential-training/indesign-learn-the-fundamentals-2...

To get up and running on InDesign books: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/indesign-creating-long-documents-13887227/creating-indesign-book-f...

LinkedIn Learning is a subscription service, but my local library in Washington State offers it for free. It's worth checking with your local library.

~Barb