TOC PREV NEXT INDEX

adobe logo

Step 3: Determine if the PDF is a Scanned Image

There are several ways to determine if a PDF file viewed inside of Adobe Acrobat 7.0 is actually a scanned image.

  1. Run Read Out Loud - View > Read Out Loud > Read This Page Only or type Ctrl + Shift + V. In Acrobat Professional 7.0 the scanned page alert will be displayed. (See Figure 2 - 5 Acrobat Professional 7.0 Scanned Page Alert) .
Figure 2 - 5 Acrobat Professional 7.0 Scanned Page Alert
ssible. If the user wishes to do this, then the OK button should be selected, otherwise the user would select cancel.


  1. Look for the presence of "Jaggies" in place of rounded smooth text. This is an indication of bit mapped text. These bitmaps are more easily revealed by magnifying the page (See Figure 2 - 6 Appearance of Jagged Text on the Page) . For a comparison of jagged text with smooth text, you can also refer to Figure 2 - 34 Before and After Results of OCR . The jagged text appears on the left in the panel labelled "Before OCR" with smooth text appearing on the right in the panel labelled "After OCR."
Figure 2 - 6 Appearance of Jagged Text on the Page
Screen shot of a scanned page in Adobe Acrobat. The letter "g" on the page has been magnified to show the jagged edges that are typical of a bitmapped image of text as opposed to actual text which would have smooth rounded edges.


  1. Search for a term on the page - Use Acrobat's Search command Edit>Search or using the keyboard shortcut Shift +Ctrl + F to look for a term that appears on the page. In the example provided shown in Figure 2 - 7 , the term "Dallas" is plainly visible, but the Search command indicates that no instances of the term were found. Another benefit to using the search command instead of the find command Edit>Find or keyboard shortcut Ctrl +F, is the search command will also launch the scanned page alert dialog which offers the user the opportunity to begin the Optical Character Recognition process "Recognize Text Using OCR" by selecting OK. If you do not want to begin OCR, then choose Cancel.. Details regarding the OCR process are found in the section If the PDF is a Scanned Image of this tutorial.
Figure 2 - 7 Searching for a Term That Appears on the Page
image. In the example, the term "Dallas" is highlighted on the page to show that even though it is visible on the page, searching for the term on a scanned image yields no instances of the term were found by the search engine.


  1. Run Quick Check - Advanced > Accessibility > Quick Check (Shift +Ctrl + 6). If the Quick Check launches an alert indicating the document contains no text (See Figure 2 - 8 Accessibility Quick Check Indicator for a Scanned PDF Document) , then the PDF file is from a scan.
Figure 2 - 8 Accessibility Quick Check Indicator for a Scanned PDF Document
The Accessibility Quick Check indicating a document has no text. Therefore it may be a scan


  1. Run Full Check - Advanced > Accessibility > Full Check. If the Full Check launches an alert indicating the document contains no fonts, then the PDF file is from a scan (See Figure 2 - 9 Accessibility Full Check Indicator for a Scanned PDF Document) .
Figure 2 - 9 Accessibility Full Check Indicator for a Scanned PDF Document
Accessibility Full Check indicating a document has no fonts and therefore may be a scan


If the PDF is a Scanned Image
  1. Perform an Optical Charcter Recognition (OCR) with the "Recognize Text Using OCR" command. Document > Recognize Text Using OCR > Start. Be sure to use the Formatted Text and Graphics option for the PDF Output style (See Figure 2 - 32 Recognize Text Using OCR Dialog) . Complete details for dealing with the scanned PDF from this point are found in the practice exercise example for scanned PDFs (See Scanned PDF Exercise) .
Figure 2 - 10 Recognize Text Using OCR Dialog
ch. The edit button on the dialog is also highlighted to show how to make changes to any of these settings.


If the PDF Is Not a Scanned Image
Proceed to Step 4 and determine if the PDF file is meant to be an interactive form.
Adobe Systems, Incorporated
http://www.adobe.com
Online Accessibility Information
  • Accessibility

    		•
    TOC PREV NEXT INDEX