“Native” isn’t an official PDF category, since every PDF is a digital file. It’s shorthand for a PDF that contains real text, as opposed to a scan, which is made of images of each page. A native PDF is created digitally, in a program like Microsoft Word, rather than scanned from paper. A scanned PDF is closer to a picture and lacks some of the key information embedded in a native PDF. 

The differences between native and scanned PDFs are:

• You can edit text in a native PDF (unless its creator has locked it against editing). 
• You can search a native PDF for words and phrases.
• Screen readers and other assistive software can read native PDF text directly.
• Text and vector graphics in a native PDF stay sharp at any zoom level.
• Native PDFs usually have smaller file sizes than non-native — or scanned — PDFs. 

Scanned PDFs can pick up some of these abilities, like text search and screen reader support, through optical character recognition (OCR). PDF.Live’s OCR tool converts the scanned images into searchable text.

Characteristics of a Native PDF

A native PDF starts out as a digital document, not a sheet of paper. When you create a document using your computer or smartphone, all of the text, links, and metadata in your document are packaged as part of the file. When you convert your file — a DOC to PDF, for example — that information is retained in the new format. 

As an aside, PDFs are the preferred format for sharing files because they keep their formatting across almost any device, and they open using a wide range of applications. 

If you send someone a native PDF, it will be easier for them to search for specific information using Ctrl+F (Windows) or Cmd+F (Mac). You can also select, copy and edit the text in a native PDF. Because native PDFs contain actual text, they give search engines and AI tools something to read, along with metadata.

Characteristics of a Scanned PDF

Scanned PDFs are digital copies of physical documents, made with a document scanner or a phone scanning app. A scanned PDF is like a series of pictures of a physical document packaged together in one file. A scan captures what the page looks like, but not the information behind it, like searchable text, font details and hyperlinks. A lot of information gets lost when you scan a document into a PDF.

Sometimes, scanning a document is the only option to obtain a digital version of something, though. A digital copy is much easier to store, transport and share than a stack of paper, so scanned PDFs are still very useful. Without OCR, though, you can’t search or edit the text the way you can in a native PDF. 

Because scanned PDFs tend to have large file sizes, there are a few ways to reduce a PDF’s file size, including file compression. 

Can You Make a Scanned PDF Searchable?

Yes, with OCR. A scanned PDF is essentially a picture of each page, so it won’t have the fonts, links and metadata of a file created digitally. But optical character recognition (OCR) can get you close.

OCR software reads the text in a scanned image and turns it into text you can search, copy and edit. PDF.Live’s OCR tool converts scanned PDFs into editable, searchable files, so you can pull out the text, search the document or copy the text into a translation tool.

OCR works best on clear, high-resolution scans of printed text. Handwriting and blurry scans may need some cleanup after conversion.

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Definition of Optical Character Recognition and How It’s Used in Scanning Technology 

Optical character recognition, or OCR, is a useful piece of technology that detects text within scanned documents and images. OCR software is designed to recognize text (and numbers and symbols) in an image and convert it into editable text within an electronic document. The original image could be a digital file, such as JPG, TIFF or other commonly used image formats. OCRs are also useful for scanned PDFs, which we’ll explain.  

You may be wondering, why would you want a picture to be converted into text? Well, a picture can be a lot of things. You can take a picture of handwritten notes, a plaque at a museum, or even a physical document, and then use an OCR to convert it to a digital, editable document — typically into a PDF. 

Why are some PDFs immediately editable using a PDF editable? That’s because these are native PDFs, which are different from scanned PDFs. 

• Native PDF: Native PDFs are created using a digital document editor (Microsoft Word, for example) and whose text fields are editable and able to be copied. A native PDF also could be a file that had been converted from another format, such as DOC, XLS or PPT. 
• Scanned PDF: A PDF created by scanning a document is, basically, a photo of a document. All the elements in the PDF are a single image. The text in a scanned PDF isn’t editable or searchable without the use of OCR technology. 

How Can I Use an OCR on My Documents?

If you have a scanned document or a picture that you’ve converted to a PDF, you’ll need to use a PDF OCR to detect and extract the text from the picture and convert it to an editable format. 

PDF.Live offers two options for this: A manual OCR tool and an automatic OCR. 

Manual OCR

PDF.Live’s manual OCR tool works by having you drag and drop your PDF into the tool.Then you review your file and convert it with an OCR. This may take a few minutes, depending on the size of the document and the density of the text. 

By default, your OCR converted file will be downloaded as a PDF. It may not look any different to you, but to a PDF editor, the text within will now be editable!

After you’ve converted your PDF with the OCR, PDF.Live gives you a few options for managing the new PDF. For example, you can select Edit PDF to begin editing the text within the new PDF.

The results of the OCR will depend on the quality of the scanned PDF, so if you want a document that’s easier to edit, we recommend immediately converting the document to a DOC using our PDF to DOC converter.

Automatic OCR

PDF.Live offers the following converters:

• PDF to Word
• PDF to Excel
• PDF to PPT

All these PDF converters employ an automatic OCR that detects if the PDF that you’re uploading has text in an image format. During the conversion process, PDF.Live will automatically engage the OCR to convert the text to an editable format. 

If your PDF conversion takes a couple of minutes, this is probably because the OCR has been engaged. 

Once your PDF is converted, the text in any images you have should be fully editable in the new format. If you’re finding that the text isn’t editable or are having trouble converting your PDF to another format, this is most likely related to the quality of the scanned document. 

Try to get a clearer or cleaner scan of the document so our OCR can accurately detect the text. You may need to increase the resolution or size of the scan. You can also try adjusting the position of the document so it’s straighter when you scan it. OCRs may be less effective with converting handwritten notes. 

How Does an OCR Work? 

OCRs may range in specific functions, but they generally work the same way: You import an image file into the OCR. Then, the OCR program locates and recognizes characters such as English letters, numbers, and symbols (e.g. !#^&), and exports the text it finds into a new document. Some advanced OCRs will even try to find and export the size and formatting settings of the text in the image. 

OCRs also have pattern recognition to detect commonalities in the text that it’s scanning. The letter “K” for example, may look one way when I write it but an entirely different way when you write it. But an OCR can detect patterns in the letters we write to determine what the letter is. Let’s say we both write this sentence:

“Lucky Luke likes lakes.” 

If you took an image of that sentence and imported it into an OCR, the OCR will notice that the letter K is used 4 times in this sentence. You probably wrote that letter the same way all 4 times and will continue to write it that way in the rest of the document that the OCR is scanning. The OCR will also use this sentence to determine how you write the letter “L,” “l,” and more. OCRs cross-reference letters across different instances to make a more accurate digital version of an image. 

The success rate, or how accurate the text is to the original document, of an OCR will be determined by the quality of the image you import. If your image isn’t taken on a good camera or is low-resolution, the OCR may struggle to produce an accurate document. 

OCRs are used a lot in the real world. Some apps on your phone can take pictures of physical notes you made and convert them to digital text. The U.S. Postal Service uses OCRs to read letter addresses and sort mail more effectively. 

Why Use Optical Character Recognition?

OCRs are particularly useful when you want to edit and interact with a piece of text more effectively. If you have physical notes, you can’t use the CTRL + F to search for specific words or phrases. If you made a mistake in your notes or need to add something new, it’s much easier to make a change in a digital document than a physical one. 

OCRs are also useful if you receive a piece of text that’s difficult to read. An OCR can scan that piece of text and convert it into a digital document that’s much easier to read. You can then increase the font size of that text to make it even more decipherable. 

While the PDF file format isn’t necessarily an “image,” it also isn’t an editable doc. PDFs are designed to maintain their formatting settings across any device to be easy to read and access no matter what. If you want to edit the text in a PDF, however, you’ll either need to use a PDF reader or convert the PDF to an editable doc. If you choose the latter option, PDF.Live’s automated OCR scans the PDF and creates a new document with the text from the original PDF that you can then edit. 

PDF.Live offers all options:

• An OCR to make the text in your PDFs editable. 
• A PDF editor entirely in your browser (no downloads required!) that you can use to make small adjustments to your PDF. 
• A PDF to Doc converter that converts PDFs to editable docs. You can then open that editable doc in a document editor like Microsoft Word.

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