74. Set Preferences for Paper Capture See Also  75 Convert a Scanned Document into Text 76 Find OCR Suspects
Before scanning images or other documents and converting them to a PDF, you need to set up your scanner. Acrobat won't recognize your scanner if you don't have the proper software driver installed, and regardless of whether Acrobat recognizes your scanner, it has to function correctly to create an image for Acrobat to convert. Follow the setup instructions for your scanner and make sure it is working properly before using Acrobat to convert the document to a PDF file. When your scanner is properly configured, you are ready to set up your scanning preferences in Acrobat.    | 1. | Set Scanner Preferences
After you have your scanner set up to scan your documents, from the File menu, select Create PDF , From Scanner . This brings up the Create PDF from Scanner dialog box.
From the Scanner drop-down list, select your scanner. Then select Front Sides or Both Sides from the Scan drop-down list. From the Destination drop-down list, select either New Document or Append to Current Document .
| | 2. | Select Image Settings When scanning an image and converting it to a PDF, you must set up the image settings, which are accessible by clicking the Image Settings button in the Create PDF from Scanner dialog box. After clicking the Image Settings button, the Image Settings dialog box, which is divided into two sections, appears. Under the Compression section in the Image Settings dialog box, you can change the Color /Grayscale option to either Adaptive or JPEG . Use the Adaptive option if your document contains different types of data (text, picture, diagrams, and so on), and use the JPEG option for documents that are primarily image-based . You can also change the Monochrome option to one of the following: JBIG2 (slower, high compression), Adaptive , or CCITT Group 4 (faster, less compressed). The compression of the scanned image can be changed by moving the slider bar either to the left, which creates a small file size and lower-quality PDF document, or to the right, which creates a larger file size but a higher-quality scanned PDF. Several options are found under the Filtering section of the Image Settings dialog box: - Deskew Rotates the page so it appears to be vertical and not skewed. You can select Off or Automatic .
- Background Removal Takes an almost white background and converts it to an all-white background. This can be set to Off, Low, Medium , or High .
- Edge Shadow Removal Removes dark streaks at the corners of the pages caused by shadows from the scanner light. You can choose between Off, Cautious , and Aggressive .
- Despeckle Removes black spots from the document. This option can be set to Off, Low, Medium , or High .
- Descreen Removes halftone dot structure from scanned images to improve legibility.
- Halo Removal Removes excess color from an object when scanned. You can set this to On or Off (only on color pages).
Click the OK button after making your selections. When you're back at the Create PDF from Scanner dialog box, click the Scan button to scan your document. | | 3. | Set Paper Capture Settings To allow for editing and searchability of your scanned document, select the Recognize Text Using OCR option; then click the Settings button. This brings up the Recognize Text - Settings dialog box. Acrobat supports 16 languages for Windows and 17 for Mac OS that you can select as the Primary OCR Language . Click the drop-down menu to select the appropriate language. TIP  | If, after you've made changes to the compression and filtering settings, you decide to go back to the original settings, simply click the Default button. Acrobat resets the options back to the default compression and filtering settings. | You can choose from two PDF Output Styles . The Searchable Image option adds text to a hidden layer behind the original image. That text is then searchable, but it cannot be edited. The Formatted Text & Graphics option replaces the original font with similar-looking and editable text. | | 4. | Improve Accessibility
This is an optional step when converting a scanned image to a readable PDF document. Click the Add Tags to Document option if you want Acrobat to add tags for easier accessibility for disabled readers. See 60 Create an Accessible PDF for more information on tags and accessibility.
| TIP | | When scanning in a document, be sure the words are clear and well formed . If letters are touching or are too thin, adjust the brightness on your scanner: Increase the brightness to separate touching letters , and increase the darkness to make thin letters more legible. |
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