Scan documents to PDF (2024)

Acrobat User Guide
Introduction to Acrobat
1. Access Acrobat from desktop, mobile, web
2. Introducing the new Acrobat experience
3. What's new in Acrobat
4. Keyboard shortcuts
5. System Requirements
Workspace
1. Workspace basics
2. Opening and viewing PDFs
  1. Opening PDFs
  2. Navigating PDF pages
  3. Viewing PDF preferences
  4. Adjusting PDF views
  5. Enable thumbnail preview of PDFs
  6. Display PDF in browser
3. Working with online storage accounts
  1. Access files from Box
  2. Access files from Dropbox
  3. Access files from OneDrive
  4. Access files from SharePoint
  5. Access files from Google Drive
4. Acrobat and macOS
5. Acrobat notifications
6. Grids, guides, and measurements in PDFs
7. Asian, Cyrillic, and right-to-left text in PDFs
Creating PDFs
1. Overview of PDF creation
2. Create PDFs with Acrobat
3. Create PDFs with PDFMaker
4. Using the Adobe PDF printer
5. Converting web pages to PDF
6. Creating PDFs with Acrobat Distiller
7. Adobe PDF conversion settings
8. PDF fonts
Editing PDFs
1. Edit text in PDFs
2. Edit images or objects in a PDF
3. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
4. Edit scanned PDFs
5. Enhance document photos captured using a mobile camera
6. Optimizing PDFs
7. PDF properties and metadata
8. Links and attachments in PDFs
9. PDF layers
10. Page thumbnails and bookmarks in PDFs
11. PDFs converted to web pages
12. Setting up PDFs for a presentation
13. PDF articles
14. Geospatial PDFs
15. Applying actions and scripts to PDFs
16. Change the default font for adding text
17. Delete pages from a PDF
Scan and OCR
1. Scan documents to PDF
2. Enhance document photos
3. Troubleshoot scanner issues when scanning using Acrobat
Forms
1. PDF forms basics
2. Create a form from scratch in Acrobat
3. Create and distribute PDF forms
4. Fill in PDF forms
5. PDF form field properties
6. Fill and sign PDF forms
7. Setting action buttons in PDF forms
8. Publishing interactive PDF web forms
9. PDF form field basics
10. PDF barcode form fields
11. Collect and manage PDF form data
12. About forms tracker
13. PDF forms help
14. Send PDF forms to recipients using email or an internal server
Combining files
1. Combine or merge files into single PDF
2. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
3. Add headers, footers, and Bates numbering to PDFs
4. Crop PDF pages
5. Add watermarks to PDFs
6. Add backgrounds to PDFs
7. Working with component files in a PDF Portfolio
8. Publish and share PDF Portfolios
9. Overview of PDF Portfolios
10. Create and customize PDF Portfolios
Sharing, reviews, and commenting
1. Share and track PDFs online
2. Mark up text with edits
3. Preparing for a PDF review
4. Starting a PDF review
5. Hosting shared reviews on SharePoint or Office 365 sites
6. Participating in a PDF review
7. Add comments to PDFs
8. Adding a stamp to a PDF
9. Approval workflows
10. Managing comments | view, reply, print
11. Importing and exporting comments
12. Tracking and managing PDF reviews
Saving and exporting PDFs
1. Saving PDFs
2. Convert PDF to Word
3. Convert PDF to JPG
4. Convert or export PDFs to other file formats
5. File format options for PDF export
6. Reusing PDF content
Security
1. Enhanced security setting for PDFs
2. Securing PDFs with passwords
3. Manage Digital IDs
4. Securing PDFs with certificates
5. Opening secured PDFs
6. Removing sensitive content from PDFs
7. Setting up security policies for PDFs
8. Choosing a security method for PDFs
9. Security warnings when a PDF opens
10. Securing PDFs with Adobe Experience Manager
11. Protected View feature for PDFs
12. Overview of security in Acrobat and PDFs
13. JavaScripts in PDFs as a security risk
14. Attachments as security risks
15. Allow or block links in PDFs
Electronic signatures
1. Sign PDF documents
2. Capture your signature on mobile and use it everywhere
3. Send documents for e-signatures
4. Create a web form
5. Request e-signatures in bulk
6. Collect online payments
7. Brand your account
8. About certificate signatures
9. Certificate-based signatures
10. Validating digital signatures
11. Adobe Approved Trust List
12. Manage trusted identities
Printing
1. Basic PDF printing tasks
2. Print Booklets and PDF Portfolios
3. Advanced PDF print settings
4. Print to PDF
5. Printing color PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
6. Printing PDFs in custom sizes
Accessibility, tags, and reflow
1. Create and verify PDF accessibility
2. Accessibility features in PDFs
3. Reading Order tool for PDFs
4. Reading PDFs with reflow and accessibility features
5. Edit document structure with the Content and Tags panels
6. Creating accessible PDFs
7. Cloud-based auto-tagging
Searching and indexing
1. Creating PDF indexes
2. Searching PDFs
Multimedia and 3D models
1. Add audio, video, and interactive objects to PDFs
2. Adding 3D models to PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
3. Displaying 3D models in PDFs
4. Interacting with 3D models
5. Measuring 3D objects in PDFs
6. Setting 3D views in PDFs
7. Enable 3D content in PDF
8. Adding multimedia to PDFs
9. Commenting on 3D designs in PDFs
10. Playing video, audio, and multimedia formats in PDFs
11. Add comments to videos
Print production tools (Acrobat Pro)
1. Print production tools overview
2. Printer marks and hairlines
3. Previewing output
4. Transparency flattening
5. Color conversion and ink management
6. Trapping color
Preflight (Acrobat Pro)
1. PDF/X-, PDF/A-, and PDF/E-compliant files
2. Preflight profiles
3. Advanced preflight inspections
4. Preflight reports
5. Viewing preflight results, objects, and resources
6. Output intents in PDFs
7. Correcting problem areas with the Preflight tool
8. Automating document analysis with droplets or preflight actions
9. Analyzing documents with the Preflight tool
10. Additional checks in the Preflight tool
11. Preflight libraries
12. Preflight variables
Color management
1. Keeping colors consistent
2. Color settings
3. Color-managing documents
4. Working with color profiles
5. Understanding color management

Scan a paper document to PDF and use Acrobat to turn it into a smart, searchable PDF with selectable text.

Before you begin

We're rolling out a new, more intuitive product experience. If the screen shown here doesn’t match your product interface, selecthelp for your current experience.

Acrobat supports TWAIN and WIA drivers on Windows and ICA on macOS. Windows users can select Autodetect Color Mode for automatic content detection or choose from presets like Black & White, Grayscale, or Color Document. Custom scanning options allow for personalized settings.

Note:

Preset scanning requires drivers that support Hide Scanner’s Native Interface mode which isn't available on macOS.

Scan a paper document to PDF in Acrobat

From the global bar, select Create, then choose Scanner.
Choose the scanner to view the options available.
If Acrobat doesn't recognize your scanner, see Scanner not recognized.

Choose the settings as mentioned below, then select Scan.

Settings	Applicable to	Details
Scan using	Windows	Use the Default settings to scan. Select to use the scanner or printer's native interface.
Predefined scan setting	Windows	Select if you want the scanner or printer toAutodetect Color Mode, scanBlack and White Document,Color Document,Grayscale Document, or aColor Photograph.
Custom Scan settings
Pages	Windows, macOS	Specify the front side or both sides scanning. If you selectBoth Sidesand the scanner settings are for only one side, the scanner setting overrides the Acrobat settings. Select Prompt to scan more pages if you want to scan multiple pages.
Color mode	Windows	Select a basic color mode (Autodetect,Color,Black and White, orGrayscale) that your scanner supports. This option is enabled if yourScanner Optionsare set to use the Acrobat scanning dialog box instead of the scanner application.
Resolution	Windows	Select a resolution that your scanner supports. This option is enabled if yourScanner Optionsare set to use the Acrobat scanning dialog box instead of the scanner application.
Paper size	Windows	Select a paper size or specify a customWidthandHeight.
Quality	Windows, macOS	Optimize Image - Select to run the optimization process on the PDF. Drag the slider to set the balance point between file size and quality. Select Settingsto customize optimization with specific file compression and filtering settings.
Output	Windows, macOS	Choose if you want to Create New PDF, Append to File, or Save Multiple Files. Recognize Text (OCR) - Select to convert text images in PDFs into searchable, selectable text using OCR. Choose Settings to select document language and output type. Add Metadata -Selecting this option opens the Document Properties dialog after scanning, allowing you to add metadata to the PDF. For multiple files, enter shared metadata once. Make PDF/A-1b compliant -Select to make the PDF conform to ISO standards for PDF/A-1b.

Scan document to PDF from printer or scanner

Applicable to Windows

You cancreate a PDFfile from a paper document using your printer or scanner and Acrobat. If theWIAdriver is installed for your scanner, you can use theScanbutton to create a PDF.

Press theScanbutton on your printer or scanner, then selectAdobe Acrobatfrom the list of registered applications.
Select a scanner, then choose a document preset orCustom Scanin the Acrobat scan interface.

Troubleshoot scanner issues

To resolve scanner errors or issues, view the following troubleshooting documents:

Error: Acrobat could not access the recognition service.
Error: Acrobat could not perform recognition (OCR) on this page because this page contains renderable text.
Troubleshoot other scanner issues.

Recognize text in scanned documents

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. The original scanner resolution must have been set at 72 dpi or higher to apply OCR to a PDF.

Note:

Scanning at 300 dpi produces the best text forconversion. At 150 dpi, OCR accuracy is slightly lower.

Recognize text in a single document

Open the scanned PDF.
Select All tools > Scan & OCR>In This File.

The Recognize Text options are displayed in the pop-up dialog box.
In the pop-up dialog box, select a page range and language for text recognition.
Optionally, selectSettings to open the Recognize Text dialog box and specify the options as needed.
SelectRecognize Text. Acrobat creates a text layer in your PDF that can be searched — or copied and pasted into a new document.

Recognize text in multiple documents

Select All tools > Scan & OCR> Or recognize text in multiple files.
In the Recognize Text dialog box, select Add Files, and then selectAdd Files, Add Folders, or Add Open Files. Then, select the files or folder. An Output Options dialog box appears.
In the Output Options dialog box, specify a target folder for output files, and filename preferences. Select OK.
In the Recognize Text - General Settings dialog box, specify the options and select OK.
Acrobat creates a text layer in your PDF that can be searched — or copied and pasted into a new document.

Recognize Text - General Settingsdialog box

Document Language

Specifies the language for the OCR engine to use to identify the characters.

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.

Searchable Image

Ensures that text is searchable and selectable. This option keeps the original image, deskews it as needed, and places an invisible text layer over it. The selection for Downsample Images in this same dialog box determines whether the image is downsampled and to what extent.

Searchable Image (Exact)

Ensures that text is searchable and selectable. This option keeps the original image and places an invisible text layer over it. Recommended for cases requiring maximum fidelity to the original image.

Editable Text & Images

Synthesizes a new custom font that closely approximates the original, and preserves the page background using a low-resolution copy.

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.

Correct OCR text in 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 suspect. Suspects appear in the PDF as the original bitmap of the word, but the text is included on an invisible layer behind the bitmap of the word. This method makes the word searchable even though it's displayed as a bitmap.

Note: If you try to select text in a scanned PDF that does not have OCR applied or try to perform a ReadOut Loudoperation on an image file, Acrobat asks if you want to run OCR. If you select OK, theText Recognitiondialog box opens, and you can select options described in detail under the previous topic.

Select All tools > Scan & OCR> Correct recognized text.
Acrobat identifies suspected text errors and displays the image and text in the pop-up dialog box. All suspect words on the page are enclosed in boxes.
Select the highlighted object or box in the document, then correct it in the Recognized As box in the pop-up dialog box. Select Accept.
The next suspect is highlighted. Correct mistakes as needed. Select Accept for each correction.
Select Closewhen the task is complete.