How to Edit a Scanned Document?

Editing a scanned document is most difficult. When you scan a document and save it as a PDF, it turns into a type of long-form document that cannot be edited. To make any additions to such a scanned document, you need to deconstruct it into a PDF file again.

Here is how to edit a scanned document without much effort.

How To Edit A Scanned PDF Online?

There are several ways to edit scanned documents online. The most common solution is by using Optical Character Recognition technology. However, an even easier way is by using CocoDoc.

Here is a step-by-step guide to scanning and editing documents using CocoDoc.

• Open CocoDoc PDF editor.
• Drag and drop your scanned PDF document into the desired space
• Your scanned PDF document will be available to make changes with the help of PDF editor tools. Click Text and start editing.
• Once done, save your changes and download the final PDF document.

Other Solutions To Edit Scanned Documents

OCR or Optical Character Recognition is another solution to edit the scanned document if you do not want to edit it online. OCR is a technology that scans documents and turns them into editable documents you can perform edits on.

There is plenty of software in the market that makes use of this technology. Here are two ways to edit scanned documents:

Using Acrobat

• On your Windows 10 device, open Acrobat
• Open the scanned document in Acrobat
• Go to Tools> Edit PDF. This will automatically allow Acrobat to perform OCR and turn your scanned PDF into editable form.
• Perform desirable action to change OCR language by going to Settings.
• Now, make all the changes by typing and editing.
• To save the file and changes, go to 'File,' and choose Save As.

Using Microsoft OneNote

• On your Windows 10 device, open Microsoft OneNote.
• Create a new note by clicking on the 'New Page' button on the top right corner.
• Go to Insert> Picture> Insert Picture
• An insert picture window will pop up. Insert your scanned document image by searching it and finally click on 'Insert'.
• Right-click the inserted image and choose 'Copy Text from Picture.
• Launch your Microsoft Word separately and open 'New document'.
• Right-click on the empty new document and choose the 'Keep source formatting' icon under 'Paste' options.
• Your scanned document will be opened and is ready to perform edits.

Useful Tips For Editing Scanned Forms

• Before making changes to the OCR performed scanned documents, apply OCR to a few pages to see how it works. OCR recognized language works differently. Make appropriate changes by using OCR language settings.
• Higher is the scanned document quality, the better will be the OCR results. The scanned document should be between 300 and 600dpin as a rule of thumb.
• Make sure your scanned documents do not have too high contrast. If it includes graphics or images with high brightness compared to the text part, balance it out by adjusting the contrast of the images. OCR will be able to read your text better then.
• Use the black and white setting for the best results.
• The source document should be scanned perfectly by laying it on a flat surface to avoid poor quality OCR results.

Using OCR technology to edit scanned documents can be tricky. Editing a scanned document online through CocoDoc with our PDF Editor makes things easier. Try it out now.