Searchable PDF

If you have text in image-only PDF files or make PDF files from image files containing text, you will not be able to search these documents based on their content. To make these files searchable, OCR should be used to extract their text. A searchable PDF document presents page images, but also contains the recognized text in a separate layer, with each text character referenced to its image counterpart. This allows the PDF to be searched. Searchable PDF is especially useful to access content in documents that must be archived with their precise original appearance.

 

Note

When Searchable PDF is selected, it runs the OCR process only when no accessible text layer is detected in an input file. When a text layer is found, this is used to make a normal PDF that is searchable without the need to run OCR. This happens even if Searchable PDF is disabled.

 

You can use PDF Create Assistant to turn image-only PDF files or various types of image files into searchable PDF documents.

You can set the OCR language in the Searchable PDF Conversion Settings dialog box.

Tip

See the list of supported file types in PDF Create Assistant.

 

PDF Create Assistant provides a separate profile named Searchable PDF, but you can also create Searchable PDF using other profiles with turning on the Searchable checkbox.

 

To use the ‘Searchable PDF’ profile in PDF Create Assistant

  1. Open the Nuance PDF Create Assistant.

  2. In the PDF Converter profile Searchable PDF Profile selection box, select Searchable PDF.

  3. Click the Profiles… button to check settings in the PDF Create Profiles dialog box. The Searchable PDF checkbox is automatically turned on. Keep this setting and change other settings (e.g. security, watermark, etc.) if required.

  4. Click the Settings… button to display the Searchable PDF Conversion Settings dialog box. Select the language your source document is written on, then close the dialog box.

To create Searchable PDF using other profiles

  1. Open the Nuance PDF Create Assistant.

  2. In the PDF Converter profile Searchable PDF Profile selection box, select a profile.

  3. Click the Profiles… button.

  4. In the PDF Create Profiles dialog box, turn on the Searchable checkbox.

  5. Click the Settings… button to display the Searchable PDF Conversion Settings dialog box. Select the language your source document is written on, then click OK.

  6. In the PDF Create Profiles dialog box check and change other settings (e.g. security, watermark, etc.) if required. Click OK.

Tip

To get a Searchable PDF with MRC compression, turn on both checkboxes. In this case if you click the Settings button, the Searchable MRC PDF Conversion Settings dialog box will appear.

 

 

When you open an image-only PDF file in PDF Converter Professional, or one that has image-only pages, the program auto-detects this and offers to make it a:

  • Searchable PDF: this keeps the original page images, so the appearance is conserved, but adds a searchable text layer

  • Normal PDF: this generates text and keeps pictures, but discards the original page images.

  • PDF Form: done by running FormTyper on it to create active form controls

  • PDF file that remains as it is.

For more detail, see About Editing PDF Documents.

 

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Searchable PDF