How to Use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) allows Adobe Acrobat Pro DC to detect and convert scanned text into readable, selectable, and searchable text. This is essential for creating accessible PDFs that work with screen readers and other assistive technologies.
Important Note: The Recognize Text (OCR) feature is available only in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Desktop application - not the free Acrobat Reader. View this KB for information on how to download Adobe Acrobat.
Steps to Enable OCR in a PDF
- Launch Adobe Acrobat Pro and open the scanned document you want to make accessible.
- In the top menu, select All tools. Choose Scan & OCR.
- Under the “Recognize Text” section, choose In This File.
- Click the blue Recognize Text button. Acrobat will process the document; this may take a few minutes.
- Once complete, go to Menu, then Save to keep your changes.
Your document now includes recognized text that can be read by screen readers and searched like a normal text file. However, this does not ensure that your document is accessible. You will need to run the Adobe Accessibility Checker to ensure accessibility for users.