If you have text in image-only PDF files or make PDF files from image files containing text, you will not be able to search these documents based on their content. To make these files searchable, OCR should be used to extract their text. A searchable PDF document presents page images, but also contains the recognized text in a separate layer, with each text character referenced to its image counterpart. This allows the PDF to be searched. Searchable PDF is especially useful to access content in documents that must be archived with their precise original appearance.
Note
When Searchable PDF is selected, it runs the OCR process only when no accessible text layer is detected in an input file. When a text layer is found, this is used to make a normal PDF that is searchable without the need to run OCR. This happens even if Searchable PDF is disabled.
You use Create Assistant to turn image-only PDF files or various types of image files into searchable PDF documents.
You can set the OCR language in the Searchable PDF Conversion Settings dialog box.
Tip
See the list of supported file types in Create Assistant.
Create Assistant provides a separate profile named Searchable PDF, but you can also create Searchable PDF using other profiles by turning on the checkbox Searchable PDF.
To use the 'Searchable PDF' profile in Create Assistant
In the Create Assistant Profile selection box, select Searchable PDF.
Open one or more files you want transformed to Searchable PDF.
Click the Profiles button to check settings in the PDF Create Profiles dialog box. The Searchable PDF checkbox is automatically turned on. Keep this setting and change other settings (e.g. security, watermark, etc.) if required.
Click the Settings button to display the Searchable PDF Conversion Settings dialog box. Select the language of your source document, then close the dialog box. Click OK to close the PDF Create Profiles dialog box.
Click the play button (Start PDF Creation) or press Alt+G to start PDF creation. If you chose multiple files with the option Create a PDF for each input document, and you set Query the File name as the saving option, the Save As dialog box appears separately for each generated PDF file.
To create Searchable PDF using other profiles
In the Create Assistant Profile selection box, select a profile and load files.
Click the Profiles button.
In the PDF Create Profiles dialog box, turn on the Searchable checkbox.
Click the Settings button to display the Searchable PDF Conversion Settings dialog box. Select the language of your source document, then click OK.
In the PDF Create Profiles dialog box check and change other settings (e.g. security, watermark, etc.) if required. Click OK and start creation as described above.
Tip
To get a Searchable PDF with MRC compression, turn on both check boxes. In this case if you click the Settings button, the Searchable MRC PDF Conversion Settings dialog box will appear.