Scanning a document usually implies making a digital copy of the original text in a raster format, such as JPEG or TIFF. The biggest problem here is that the resulting file is basically viewed as a picture, which means the text cannot be edited or searched.
This is particularly daunting when you have to deal with long texts, books, an invoice that needs to be corrected, a bank statement that has to undergo machine translation etc. But with the optical character recognition (OCR) technology, this problem can be solved. Imitating how the human eye and brain function, OCR uses pattern recognition and feature detection to turn a typed or handwritten text into a text file.
OCR means the text from scanned or photographed documents can be digitised so that it becomes searchable and editable. For example, photographing a certificate with your smartphone can result in a digital copy that you can later modify, or photographing/scanning a book can result in a document you can easily search by key words or phrases. This translates into a lot of saved time and energy!
Convert to PDF Using Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
reaConverter’s latest edition uses optical character recognition to help you convert documents from “raster” formats into PDFs that you can edit, search or use in a number of automatic processes, such as machine translation, text mining or text-to-speech generation. The resulting file can also reproduce with great accuracy the original page formatting, including rows, columns, numbers and various other non-textual data.
Add Files
Add all the images file that need conversion to PDF using optical character recognition. Drag-and-drop them, add entire folders or add them selectively according to extension and file size, using the Advanced file select option.
Turn On OCR Feature
Go to the Menu button and then to Saving settings → Format saving settings → PDF
This window can also be reached via a shortcut: place the pointer on the PDF button, from the Convert to area, and then click the Settings icon on its upper left corner. Once you get here, tick the box near Create searchable PDF in language, and then pick one of the 6 languages available (English, Deutsch, French, Nederlands, Portuguese, Spanish).
In the PDF Security Settings section you can enter a password for opening the output PDF files and one for allowing various actions applied to it — printing, editing or copying.
Start Conversion
In the Saving options section, pick a destination folder on your hard drive. Finally, don't forget to click PDF as output format, in the Convert to section.
Then simply press Start – your editable and searchable PDFs will soon be ready!
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Command-line interface
Advanced users can do the same using command-line interface in manual or automated mode. You are welcome to contact our technical support when you have any questions about reaConverter.
Download reaConverter Pro with CLI