Scan and OCR / Step-by-step guide

You can see your PDF, but cannot select its text

Understand when to use OCR and what to review afterwards.

Reviewed on September 23, 20263 steps · 1 min read

At a glance

A scan may contain an image of the page rather than text. OCR recognizes letters in that image to recover usable text. Recognition can make mistakes.

Before you start

Try searching for a visible word. Check the page’s orientation, focus and contrast.

Actual Folio interface with a sample document. You can see your PDF, but cannot select its text — Actual Folio interface with a sample document. View full screenshot ↗

Prepare a readable image

Correct rotated pages and avoid photos with glare or cropped text. Recovering what is not visible in the original is not guaranteed.

Enable OCR for your Word copy

For an editable DOCX, open PDF to Word, select the file and review Use OCR. The standalone OCR tool has its own availability; do not assume it is active because this option is.

Compare the result

Run the tool and compare recovered text with the original. Review names, amounts, dates and similar characters such as O and 0.

If something does not go as expected

If words are missing, first review scan quality. Recovering text does not automatically certify the accessibility of the entire PDF.

Before you finish

You can find the text you need and have reviewed figures and names.

NOW, YOUR DOCUMENT

Now you know where to start.

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Scan and OCR1 min