
#Make pdf searchable pdf#
With the PDF open in FileCenter, right-click on it and choose Select Tool. If you don't have the PDF open in FileCenter, select it, then click the Files button Open in FileCenter. If you're in doubt, there's an easy way to see whether a PDF file is searchable or not: Just select or open the PDF, then click the OCR button. Without OCR, an image-based PDF file is not searchable. This creates text from the "pictures" of the letters and then inserts the text invisibly behind the image. To make these files searchable, it is necessary to "recognize" the text in the image using optical character recognition ("OCR"). Your computer does not see any text in them. To your computer, these images are no different than digital photos or graphics. These are image-based PDF files, meaning that they are simply a picture of the original. PDF files can also originate from a scan or a fax. Text-based PDF files are searchable because they contain real text. These PDF files are text-based PDF, meaning that they retain the text and formatting of the original. Normally, you create the file in your software and then "print" it to a PDF printer. Text-Based PDFįirst, a PDF file can originate with a file on your computer, like a Word document.
To understand whether a PDF file is searchable, you have to look at its origin.
The PDF file format can be confusing, especially when it comes to understanding what constitutes a "searchable" PDF file.