Scan a paper document to PDF and use Acrobat to turn it into a smart, searchable PDF with selectable text.
You can create a PDF file directly from a paper document, using your scanner and Acrobat. On Windows, Acrobat supports TWAIN scanner drivers and Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) drivers. On Mac OS, Acrobat supports TWAIN and Image Capture (ICA).
In Windows, you can either use the Autodetect Color Mode and let Acrobat determine the paper document’s content type, or use other presets (Black & White Document, Grayscale Document, Color Image, and Color Document) based on your judgment. You can configure the scanning presets or use the Custom Scan option to scan with the settings of your choice.
Note:
Preset scanning is available only for scanner drivers that support Hide Scanner’s Native Interface mode. The scanning presets are not available on Mac OS.
In Windows, if a WIA driver is installed for your scanner, you can use the Scan button on your scanner to create a PDF. Press the Scan button, and then in Windows, choose Adobe Acrobat from the list of registered applications. Then, in the Acrobat scan interface, select a scanner and a document preset or Custom Scan.
To scan a paper document to PDF using Acrobat, go to Tools > Create PDF. The Create a PDF from any format interface is displayed. Choose Scanner to see the options available.
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Note:
If you want to append the document, which you'll scan, to an existing file, do the following:
- Choose the Append to Existing File check box.
- If you've the files open in Acrobat, select an appropriate file from the drop-down list, or click Browse and then select an appropriate file.
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Note:
If you want to append the document, which you'll scan, to an existing file, do the following:
- Choose the Append to Existing File check box.
- If you've the files open in Acrobat, select an appropriate file from the drop-down list, or click Browse and then select an appropriate file.
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Note:
If you want to append the document, which you'll scan, to an existing file, do the following:
- Choose the Append to Existing File check box.
- If you've the files open in Acrobat, select an appropriate file from the drop-down list, or click Browse and then select an appropriate file.
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If you want to change the settings, click the
Settings 
icon . The Custom Scan interface is displayed. Select scanning options as needed.If you want to scan multiple files into a PDF, select the Prompt to scan more pages check box.
Note:
If you specify that you want to use the Show scanner's user interface instead of the Acrobat user interface, other windows or dialog boxes appear. Consult the scanner documentation information on available options. In Mac OS, the scanner user interface is always shown.
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Select options in the Secondary toolbar - click the Settings
icon and choose appropriate options in the Enhance Scanned PDF dialog box, and click OK.For more information on the options displayed in the dialog box, see Enhance Scanned PDF dialog box.
After you select a scanner, you can choose or adjust its various scanning options as per your requirements.
Click here to see all the scanning options
Scanner
Select an installed scanner. You must have the manufacturer scanning software installed on your computer. In Windows only, click the Options button to specify scanner options.
Show Scanner's User Interface
Select this option only if you want to see the settings using the windows and dialog boxes provided by the scanner manufacturer. When the option is not selected, scanning starts directly with the settings specified in the Custom Scan or Configure Predefined Settings interface.
Pages
Specify single or double-sided scanning. If you select Both Sides and the settings of the scanner are for only one side, the scanner setting overrides the Acrobat settings.
Note:
You can scan both sides of pages even on scanners that do not themselves support two-sided scanning. When Both Sides is selected, a dialog box appears after the first sides are scanned. You can then reverse the original paper documents in the tray, and select the Scan Reverse Side (Put Reverse Of Sheets) option in that dialog box. This method produces a PDF with all pages in the proper sequence.
Color Mode (Windows only)
Select a basic color mode (Autodetect, Color, Black and White, or Grayscale) that your scanner supports. This option is enabled if your Scanner Options are set to use the Acrobat scanning dialog box instead of the scanner application.
Resolution (Windows only)
Select a resolution that your scanner supports. This option is enabled if your Scanner Options are set to use the Acrobat scanning dialog box instead of the scanner application.
Note:
If you select a Color Mode or Resolution option not supported by your scanner, a message appears and your scanner application window opens. Select different options in the scanner application window.
Prompt to Scan More Pages
When selected, a dialog box prompting you to scan additional pages appears after every scanning session.
Quality > Optimize Image
Select this option to run the optimization process on the PDF. This option is used to compresses and filter the images in the scanned PDF. Click the Settings icon to customize optimization with specific settings for file compression and filtering.
Quality > Optimize Image > Small Size/High Quality
Drag the slider to set the balance point between file size and quality.
Output > Append To Existing File
Adds the converted scan to an existing PDF. Select an opened file from the drop-down, or browse and select the PDF file.
Output > Save Multiple Files
Creates multiple files from multiple paper documents. Click the Settings icon and specify whether to create a PDF Portfolio of the files, the number of pages for each file, and a filename prefix.
Recognize Text (OCR)
Select this option to convert text images in the PDF to searchable and selectable text. This option applies optical character recognition (OCR) and font and page recognition to the text images. Click the Settings icon specify settings in the Recognize Text - Settings dialog box. See Recognize text in scanned documents.
The Enhance Scanned PDF dialog box controls the image settings of how scanned images are filtered and compressed for the PDF. Default settings are suitable for a wide range of document pages, but you may want to customize settings for higher-quality images, smaller file sizes, or scanning issues.
Click here to see all the image optimization options
Apply Adaptive Compression
Divides each page into black-and-white, grayscale, and color regions and chooses a representation that preserves appearance while highly compressing each type of content. The recommended scanning resolutions are 300 dots per inch (dpi) for grayscale and RGB input, or 600 dpi for black-and-white input.
Note:
The scanner uses either the selected Color/Grayscale option or the selected Monochrome option. Which one is used depends on the settings you select in the Acrobat Scan dialog box or in the scanner’s TWAIN interface, which may open after you click Scan in the Acrobat Scan dialog box. (By default, the scanner application dialog box does not open.)
JBIG2 (Lossless) & JBIG2(Lossy)
Applies the JBIG2 compression method to black-and-white input pages. Highest-quality levels use the lossless method; at lower settings, text is highly compressed. Text pages typically are 60% smaller than CCITT Group 4 compressed pages, but processing is slow. Compatible with Acrobat 5.0 (PDF 1.4) and later.
Note:
For compatibility with Acrobat 4.0, use a compression method other than JBIG2.
Deskew
Rotates any page that is not square with the sides of the scanner bed, to make the PDF page align vertically. Choose On or Off.
Background Removal
Whitens nearly white areas of grayscale and color input (not black-and-white input).
Note:
For best results, calibrate your scanner’s contrast and brightness settings so that a scan of a normal black-and-white page has dark gray or black text and a white background. Then, Off or Low should produce good results. If scanning off-white paper or newsprint, use Medium or High to clean up the page.
Descreen
Removes halftone dot structure, which can reduce JPEG compression, cause moire patterns, and make text difficult to recognize. Suitable for 200–400-dpi grayscale or RGB input or, for Adaptive Compression, 400–600-dpi black-and-white input. The On setting (recommended) applies the filter for 300 dpi or higher grayscale and RGB input. Select Off when scanning a page with no pictures or filled areas, or when scanning at a resolution higher than the effective range.
Document Language
By default the OCR language is picked from default locale. To change the language, click Edit and choose a different language.
Acrobat scanning accepts images between 10 dpi and 3000 dpi. If you select Searchable Image or ClearScan for PDF Output Style, input resolution of 72 dpi or higher is required. Also, input resolution higher than 600 dpi is downsampled to 600 dpi or lower.
Lossless compressions can only be applied to monochrome images. To apply lossless compression to a scanned image, select one of these options under the Optimization Options in the Optimize Scanned PDF dialog box: CCITT Group 4 or JBIG2 (Lossless) for monochrome images. If this image is appended to a PDF document, and you save the file using the Save option, the scanned image remains uncompressed. If you save the PDF using Save As, the scanned image may be compressed.
For most pages, black-and-white scanning at 300 dpi produces text best suited for conversion. At 150 dpi, OCR accuracy is slightly lower, and more font-recognition errors occur; at 400 dpi and higher resolution, processing slows, and compressed pages are bigger. If a page has many unrecognized words or small text (9 points or smaller), try scanning at a higher resolution. Scan in black and white whenever possible.
When Recognize Text Using OCR is disabled, full 10-to-3000 dpi resolution range may be used, but the recommended resolution is 72 and higher dpi. For Adaptive Compression, 300 dpi is recommended for grayscale or RGB input, or 600 dpi for black-and-white input.
Pages scanned in 24-bit color, 300 dpi, at 8-1/2–by-11 in. (21.59-by-27.94 cm) result in large images (25 MB) before compression. Your system may require 50 MB of virtual memory or more to scan the image. At 600 dpi, both scanning and processing typically are about four times slower than at 300 dpi.
Avoid dithering or halftone scanner settings. These settings can improve the appearance of photographs, but they make it difficult to recognize text.
For text printed on colored paper, try increasing the brightness and contrast by about 10%. If your scanner has the color-filtering capability, consider using a filter or lamp that drops out the background color. Or if the text isn’t crisp or drops out, try adjusting scanner contrast and brightness to clarify the scan.
If your scanner has a manual brightness control, adjust it so that characters are clean and well-formed. If characters are touching, use a higher (brighter) setting. If characters are separated, use a lower (darker) setting.
For troubleshooting tips, see Troubleshoot scanner issues when scanning using Acrobat.
You can use Acrobat to recognize text in previously scanned documents that have already been converted to PDF. Optical character recognition (OCR) software enables you to search, correct, and copy the text in a scanned PDF. To apply OCR to a PDF, the original scanner resolution must have been set at 72 dpi or higher.
Note:
Scanning at 300 dpi produces the best text for conversion. At 150 dpi, OCR accuracy is slightly lower.
Output (PDF Output Style)
Determines the type of PDF to produce. All options require an input resolution of 72 dpi or higher (recommended). All formats apply OCR and font and page recognition to the text images and convert them to normal text.
Downsample To
Decreases the number of pixels in color, grayscale, and monochrome images after OCR is complete. Choose the degree of downsampling to apply. Higher-numbered options do less downsampling, producing higher-resolution PDFs.
When you run OCR on a scanned output, Acrobat analyzes bitmaps of text and substitutes words and characters for those bitmap areas. If the ideal substitution is uncertain, Acrobat marks the word as
Note: If you try to select text in a scanned PDF that does not have OCR applied, or try to perform a Read Out Loud operation on an image file, Acrobat asks if you want to run OCR. If you click OK, the Text Recognition dialog box opens and you can select options, which are described in detail under the previous topic.
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