Optical Character Recognition, OCR, is a technology that recognizes text within images. It allows Soda PDF to differentiate the text in scanned documents and images so you can edit it.
This article will cover the instructions for the following versions:
Soda PDF Desktop
You will be able to recognize an image by the red border that surrounds it when you select it while in Edit Mode.
When the whole page is one large image, it is indicative of a document made up of scanned pages. Without OCR, they cannot be edited easily.
Once the image is selected you need to use the OCR to make the text editable.
If the OCR module is not available for you, you can purchase it here.
Auto and Manual OCR
These are only active when an individual image is selected. Rather than scanning an entire document, you can work image by image. These features do not create a new file but scan the image within the existing PDF. Click here to learn more.
Recognize Document
If you have a document made up of several scanned pages that need to be recognized and edited you need to open the OCR module and choose the Document option.
- In the dialog box that appears you can specify the pages to recognize.
- Click on the Recognize button.
After the recognition process is finished, a new file with the recognized text will be created in a separate tab. Your original file will not change.
External Image
To recognize the text of an external image to PDF click External Image.
A Browse window will open where you need to select the file. Click Open.
Once the image has been recognized, it will open in a new portable document within the Soda PDF application.
Soda PDF Online
You can access Soda PDF Online here - https://tools.sodapdf.com/
- Open the Edit tab.
- Click on the Recognize text tool.
- Specify the pages to recognize.
- Select the language for recognition.
- Click on the cog icon to open the OCR settings.
- Click the Recognize button once you have configured all options.
Once the document is recognized, the window will open.
- Click on the pencil icon to rename the file.
- Click on the Edit my file button if you want to continue editing the file.
- You also have the option to save the file, print it, or email it.