# How can I edit the text in a scanned document?



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I've got a document that I need to edit and Email to someone. I can easily scan it, but the result, of course, is a .pdf file that I cannot edit text-wise. I'm not needing to add commentary or notes or stuff like that, which is easy to do. Instead, I need to actually edit the text in some spots of the scanned document. 

Is there a relatively simple way to do this? I've searched around, but it seems all I can come up with is how to scan something, convert it to Word, and that's about it. 

FYI, I'm using Office 2007 and have Acrobat 10.0 if that info helps.


----------



## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

You should have Office 2007 tools in your start menu under Microsoft Office. Select Office Document Scanning to scan and run OCR (optical character recognition) on the scanned text.

If not, you'll need to find a separate OCR program.


----------



## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

You need OCR software to do that.
You could use acrobat writer and overlay an opaque form field and type over the text, but OCR will let you actually import it into an editor like Word and make changes.

Check sourceforge or cnet for free OCR software or recheck your scanner's OEM disc.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

So Bill's method won't work then?


----------



## The Merg (Jun 24, 2007)

Lord Vader said:


> So Bill's method won't work then?


His wil work if you have that installed.

- Merg


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

billsharpe said:


> You should have Office 2007 tools in your start menu under Microsoft Office. Select Office Document Scanning to scan and run OCR (optical character recognition) on the scanned text.
> 
> If not, you'll need to find a separate OCR program.





The Merg said:


> His wil work if you have that installed.
> 
> - Merg


I do have Office 2007 tools under Office, but it doesn't look like I have Office Document Scanning.


----------



## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

Lord Vader said:


> So Bill's method won't work then?


Yes. It should work. I was typing and doing three other things while you were reading his reply.


----------



## WestDC (Feb 9, 2008)

Lord Vader said:


> I do have Office 2007 tools under Office, but it doesn't look like I have Office Document Scanning.


If you have the MS 2007 Office CD- Can install it from that - If you loaded or it was loaded when it was first installed it is possible that that feature was left out at the time of install,

Insert the msoffice disk and re-run setup -Just a suggestion.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

If I read elsewhere correctly, that feature was removed from 2007 entirely.


----------



## WestDC (Feb 9, 2008)

Lord Vader said:


> If I read elsewhere correctly, that feature was removed from 2007 entirely.


It may depend on which MS office you have student -pro??

Is the arobat 10 READER or pro?


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Correction, it's Acrobat 7.0 Pro, not 10.0

Office is 2007 Enterprise Blue edition.


----------



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

I won't swear to it, but I believe Open Office can do it. Or the newer Libre Office. Both FREE.


----------



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

Wait a minute ---- when you scan it, is .pdf your only option? Or can you scan it as an .rtf file? Then you could open and edit in Word or Office.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

It seems scanning it as a .pdf is the only option. 

I did use a free program that converts such files to .docx files, but I'm not able to edit it. All the text shows up as an image box or something similar.


----------



## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

Take a look at the setup/preferences for your scanning software. Mine has 'scan to pdf" and 'scan to searchable pdf (OCR)' as options. I believe the ability to edit a scanned document is something that has to be set up before the document is actually scanned & saved.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Acrobat doesn't let me scan it as anything that's editable.


----------



## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

Acrobat 10? Pro?


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I've got ver7.0 Pro.


----------



## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

If you have an HP printer/scanner the software is included with the printer. Scan to searchable pdf file.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I do, but nothing of that type was/is included in my HP's software.


----------



## njblackberry (Dec 29, 2007)

I've used NitroPDF for converting PDF files. Worked ok for me. They have on online service (if you don't mind the document going out to the Internet) and a Windows based client.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

The conversion part isn't an issue for me. It's the _editing _part that I'm needing to do. I can easily convert .pdf files. I just can't find a damn program that will allow me to edit the final product.


----------



## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

Lord Vader said:


> I do, but nothing of that type was/is included in my HP's software.


You can download it from HP's site. The OCR works fairly well.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

If it's anything like their PCs, it will probably not work.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

davring said:


> You can download it from HP's site. The OCR works fairly well.


So far, all I'm finding is pricey software, which ain't gonna work.


----------



## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

Lord Vader said:


> If it's anything like their PCs, it will probably not work.


Agreed, but they do seem to have printers figured out. THe version I have converts scanned doc's that can be imported to Word and edited.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I even tried a couple free conversion programs that converted files to a Word file, but I'm not able to edit them. HP's site offers OCR software but at high prices, which isn't an option for me.


----------



## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

Lord Vader said:


> I even tried a couple free conversion programs that converted files to a Word file, but I'm not able to edit them. HP's site offers OCR software but at high prices, which isn't an option for me.


Just checked the HP site, checked on software for my 6310 OfficeJet, and they offer the full feature download, or disc option, 362 mb. I used this when I bought my new computer a couple of months ago and couldn't find my discs. FREE


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Hmmm. Maybe I wasn't looking in the right place. Do you have the URL you can PM me?

Never mind. I think I found it. I hope this isn't the basic product software but includes OCR capability.


----------



## clueless (Dec 6, 2004)

You might try google docs. This would appear to do what you need.

http://www.groovypost.com/howto/google-docs-ocr-digitize-old-documents/


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Thanks. I'll give it a try.


----------



## The Merg (Jun 24, 2007)

Badsically, you need some sort of OCR application to take what you scan in and convert it to an editable doc. Most scanners comes with a basic program for doing this and as mentioned there are freeware versions out there as well.

- Merg


----------



## Losana (Sep 13, 2006)

I use several of methods mentioned previously but when a user at our office needs their own product I install ABBYY PDF Transformer 3.0. It works well but cost $49.99, it goes on sale sometimes for $29.99.


----------



## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

Lord Vader said:


> If I read elsewhere correctly, that feature was removed from 2007 entirely.


No, I have the OCR scanning feature installed with Office 2007.

But others have suggested searching for alternate OCR software. Try that.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

The Merg said:


> Badsically, you need some sort of OCR application to take what you scan in and convert it to an editable doc. Most scanners comes with a basic program for doing this and as mentioned there are freeware versions out there as well.
> 
> - Merg


Won't the Google docs link mentioned above do that?


----------



## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

Yes it will just scan it as a PDF and follow the instructions in the article.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

That didn't work, either. Once again, I can scan and convert, but with Google docs, _I can't edit it_! This is really irritating. Is there NO frickin' free software program out there that can allow one to simply *edit a scanned text*??? I can scan and convert till the cows come home; I just can't do what is most crucial: editing scanned text.

With Google docs, I followed the instructions *exactly*. Once I get to the point to select the entire document and copy/paste to a document (Email, Word, etc.), I did this, choosing Word. The document saves, then, but when I try to open it, it opens only in Adobe, but it responds with an error saying it couldn't open and read it because it is an unknown file format or damaged. When I copied and pasted the scan into Word then opened it there, it opens as an image file of some sort; that is, the whole copied text shows up in a box and doesn't allow me to edit specific text.


----------



## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

The first hit in my Google search for "edit scanned text freeware" is the following:

http://www.freewaregenius.com/2011/...itable-text-from-your-scanned-images-or-pdfs/

The site itself provides a list of pros and cons about using the free service. You might try that or any of the other hits on the first page of the Google results.

I have found that the MS Document Scanning works best with simple documents with few graphic parts and fairly clear text, say 10 points or better. That limitation most likely applies to any OCR program.

However, if this is just a single document that isn't too long you might have been better off to just type in the text in a new document yourself rather than trying to find a program that will do it for you.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

It's a single, relatively small one-page document.


----------



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

What model is your scanner?


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I use an HP OfficeJet 6310 All-in-One.


----------



## WestDC (Feb 9, 2008)

http://www.smartpdfeditor.com/?gclid=CJbi_vmRlK0CFcZM4AodzB1iQA

Scan it and save it as a PDF-then try using this free (trial) software?

Will it work??


----------



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

XP or Win7?

I'm looking at the HP download pages.

Open Office and LibreOffice will both probably do it to an extent, but their pdf editors both open the file as a bitmap and let you edit as an image. Takes a bit of a learning curve and they're better suited for filling in forms that actually editing text.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Win7 here. Yeah, doing it as an image won't work.


----------



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

According to this, that scanner should have OCR built in:

Integrated Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software automatically converts scanned text to editable text

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00608729&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=1119598

I know my 6500 does.

You don't have the CD?

You may be able to dopwnload the software here, but it's a 362Mb file:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...dlc=en&lc=en&os=4062&product=1119598&sw_lang=

Don't try and C&P the links. Hit Quote and copy the actual URLs from the forum editor box.


----------



## David Ortiz (Aug 21, 2006)

Open PDF in Photoshop. Copy and Paste. (assumes necessary letters are in already in the document.)


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I don't have Photoshop.


----------



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

The HP software looks like this on my PC:










Note the last option on the right list.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I DL'd it and will give it a try.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

This is f-----g ridiculous. Somebody up there just doesn't want me to succeed. I've tried 3 times to install that HP software but can't do it. The installation process starts, but after the screen that requires me to check the box to accept the terms, the whole process just stops. Totally. No error messages, no responses, nothing. It just stops with no notification. Retrying several times just does the same thing. WTF is that?!?


----------



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

Did it download completely? It should be 362.68Mb.

Are you 32bit or 64bit? I may have flagged the wrong one, but you should be able to change it at that link.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Yup. I downloaded it a couple more times. Same problem. It starts the process, then after I check that box that requires agreement to HP's terms and hit continue, the installation box just disappears and everything stops. Totally.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

WestDC said:


> http://www.smartpdfeditor.com/?gclid=CJbi_vmRlK0CFcZM4AodzB1iQA
> 
> Scan it and save it as a PDF-then try using this free (trial) software?
> 
> Will it work??


I even tried this, and when I attempted to install it, I get a message telling me the setup files are corrupt and to download again. So I did, but I got the same response. In fact, every free version on their site gives me the same response. How typical. They just want to make someone pay for their so-called "free trial" download.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

SayWhat? said:


> Did it download completely? It should be 362.68Mb.
> 
> Are you 32bit or 64bit? I may have flagged the wrong one, but you should be able to change it at that link.


According to the HP web site, it's good for Win7 64 and 32. I have the former. Just tried it for the 4th time. Rebooted my system first after checking to see if even the registry had any remnants of it. Nothing. After reboot, same problem. No matter what I do, I just can't install this software. I wouldn't doubt HP restricts it now to an HP computer.


----------



## WestDC (Feb 9, 2008)

http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/best-free-pdf-tools.htm



Or

http://pdfeditor.me/


----------



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

Well, this PC is a Gateway, but I loaded off the CD, not from a download.

You sure you don't have the CD around anywhere?


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I'll have to look, as the printer is a few years old. It's not my main one, but I use it for its good scanning capabilities.

Edited to add: Just looked. I have the CD, but it's for Windows 2000 and XP only. Figures.


----------



## Sharkie_Fan (Sep 26, 2006)

IF the downloaded software doesn't work, here's an article suggesting several free OCR solutions. I haven't used any of them, but if they do what they're supposed to do, any of them would do what you need.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

WestDC said:


> http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/best-free-pdf-tools.htm
> 
> 
> 
> ...


No dice on either of these. The second link looked promising, but when I tried to edit some text, I got one error after another, and the program closed. Even more irritating, every time one wants to use the program, you have to do it from install. It doesn't install with an icon that you can click to open it. Plus, it wouldn't allow me to edit the one small field in my document that I wanted to edit. Totally useless. Probably because it's free.

It shouldn't take me 2 f'in days (and counting) so far to try and accomplish something this simple. Worse, I'm fighting a deadline of end of day tomorrow.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Sharkie_Fan said:


> IF the downloaded software doesn't work, here's an article suggesting several free OCR solutions. I haven't used any of them, but if they do what they're supposed to do, any of them would do what you need.


I'd be satisfied with knowing WHY HP software for a Win7 64-bit PC just won't install.


----------



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

Try and install from the CD. See what happens.

Maybe the download needs to see the CD version before it will install.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

It won't install on Win7 64-bit.


----------



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

Anybody else willing to try that HP download to see if the software will install? I already have the version for mine, so I don't know what might happen if I tried another version.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Is yours on an HP PC?


----------



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

Maybe it's the wrong version for your printer somehow. Try this and see it it will detect anything different:

http://h20614.www2.hp.com/ediags/gmd/welcome.aspx?lc=en&cc=us

There are also some other troubleshooting and support options including a Consumer Forum in you dig around on the pages a bit.

I just looked at my CD directories and I have several Iris OCR files, but I'm not sure which ones you'd need.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Maybe you can copy your disk and send it to me through this site. I'll PM you an Email address to which to send the file link.

https://www.wetransfer.com/


----------



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

Mine's a 6500, so I'm not sure it would be compatible.


----------



## Sharkie_Fan (Sep 26, 2006)

FWIW... I just downloaded and tried using simpleOCR from the link I provided, and was able to take a jpg of a page (not editable as text, only as an image), and it converted to a word doc that I could then edit without any problem.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

OK. I downloaded it and will try that. Just so I don't mess anything up, what were the steps you took to achieve the end result?


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Sharkie_Fan said:


> FWIW... I just downloaded and tried using simpleOCR from the link I provided, and was able to take a jpg of a page (not editable as text, only as an image), and it converted to a word doc that I could then edit without any problem.


OK. I tried it, but after I scanned it, in the lower window pane was a bunch of unintelligible gibberish which I obviously couldn't edit text-wise.


----------



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

How involved is the document and and how much needs to be changed? If it isn't heavy on personal information, maybe you could send me the pdf somehow. I could print it, then scan it to a .doc file and send it back.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

It's a small document, but it does contain personal information of a relative; hence my deadline of trying to get this edited thing back by tomorrow evening to that person.


----------



## armophob (Nov 13, 2006)

There is the crude method of matching the font and size in Word and then retyping all the info in the paragraph. Then scissors and tape the document together and rescan it. With the simple paint program you can open the result and erase any visible shadow lines of the merged document.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I noticed that the font is the traditional dot matrix printer/computer font, which is difficult to replicate. I wonder if it's available as an add-on for Word or something. BTW, the document itself is formatted in a bunch of boxes. It's basically a statement sized box with a bunch of windows/cells containing information, which makes this all the more challenging.


----------



## Sharkie_Fan (Sep 26, 2006)

Lord Vader said:


> OK. I tried it, but after I scanned it, in the lower window pane was a bunch of unintelligible gibberish which I obviously couldn't edit text-wise.


So it's not recognizing your type for some reason... When I did it, the upper portion of the screen shows my page, the lower portion shows what it thinks the conversion is, and I could scroll through the type on the lower half to make any adjustments to the capture that I wanted. Once I had corrected anything it was unsure of, i was able to save to a .doc and could then edit that in word.

If the bottom is unintelligible, it would seem to suggest that for some unknown reason, it's unable to recognize the characters in your scan...


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Indeed. It scanned well and very legible; it's just that the dot matrix font must be a challenge for the program to try and overcome.


----------



## armophob (Nov 13, 2006)

When David Ortiz suggested Photoshop in an earlier post, I thought I would do that. But you may have to do the same thing physically. Make a couple copies and find the right words to replace the ones you want to change and cut copy paste for real.

I have not seen a dot matrix font, but I am sure it exists. But it would be a real find to match old text like that.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Considering this is a financial type of document, I wonder if they use that font purposely for that reason. Then again, why anyone would want to scan and edit this type of doc is probably not a concern.


----------



## armophob (Nov 13, 2006)

Lord Vader said:


> Indeed. It scanned well and very legible; it's just that the dot matrix font must be a challenge for the program to try and overcome.


Even if you had an OCR program work for you, it most likely would not spit out a dot matrix format. Is it ok that the final product is in a different font, but in the same format?


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

That shouldn't be an issue. I'm digging around for a similar font.


----------



## armophob (Nov 13, 2006)

Lord Vader said:


> That shouldn't be an issue. I'm digging around for a similar font.


The words that need to be corrected/added are they repeated anywhere in the paragraph? And this particular area of the document is the personal information?

If not you can send me this much and I can use my Corel Paint(photoshop) to manipulate it and send it back for you to print and then do the cut, tape and scan thing.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Well, I think I can get away with changing one bit of information on this form. I scanned the thing and saved it as a .tiff file. I used Paint to delete a 2-digit number that I wanted to edit (that will suffice for now). Now I just have to figure out how to paste a different number in that field.


----------



## armophob (Nov 13, 2006)

Lord Vader said:


> Well, I think I can get away with changing one bit of information on this form. I scanned the thing and saved it as a .tiff file. I used Paint to delete a 2-digit number that I wanted to edit (that will suffice for now). Now I just have to figure out how to paste a different number in that field.


use the "dotted line box" tool to click and drag over each number you need to use and copy it. Then paste it and move it into position.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I think I did something else--used a text box and then selected 8pin matrix font, entered the 2-digit number, moved it a tad, and voila! It looks just like the original. (Now I'm trying to figure out how to enlarge the document, because when Paint printed it, it comes out smaller.)

Now if I can only do this with $100 bills.


----------



## armophob (Nov 13, 2006)

Lord Vader said:


> I think I did something else--used a text box and then selected 8pin matrix font, entered the 2-digit number, moved it a tad, and voila! It looks just like the original. (Now I'm trying to figure out how to enlarge the document, because when Paint printed it, it comes out smaller.)
> 
> Now if I can only do this with $100 bills.


I made a few 20's once that scared me so much I burned them.

That might have to do with margins and settings in your paint program or your printer.


----------



## klang (Oct 14, 2003)

Lord Vader said:


> BTW, the document itself is formatted in a bunch of boxes. It's basically a statement sized box with a bunch of windows/cells containing information, which makes this all the more challenging.


The boxes and stuff make OCRing difficult if not impossible.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Well, I achieved 99% of what I wanted to achieve, albeit somewhat manually and primitively. Now the only problem I have is trying to get the finished product to print larger than it does. On the screen in Paint or Word it does appear its normal size, but when printed, it's shrunk to half that. I've tried changing the size, but that only affects what's on the screen and not what's printed.


----------



## armophob (Nov 13, 2006)

I really suggest keeping your eye on a sale or finding a buddy who has Photoshop. The things you can do with simple instruction goes a long way in this digital age.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I can get Photoshop for free, so I'm not worried about that.


----------



## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

Lord Vader said:


> Well, I achieved 99% of what I wanted to achieve, albeit somewhat manually and primitively. Now the only problem I have is trying to get the finished product to print larger than it does. On the screen in Paint or Word it does appear its normal size, but when printed, it's shrunk to half that. I've tried changing the size, but that only affects what's on the screen and not what's printed.


Irfanview, a free program, lets you resize your graphic easily either smaller or larger, assuming that what you have finally produced is still a graphic image.

Bill


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Never mind. I remembered that when I printed the document, I was able to scale it larger in the print option box, which worked just fine.


----------

