Not Recognizing Text in PDF? Fixed with 3 Methods

Are you in a situation where your PDF editor like Adobe Acrobat is not recognizing the text in the PDF file? It generally happens when you want to edit a scanned PDF file but the Adobe editor does not recognize text. However, it is only one of the reasons. There are several reasons behind this and there are some things you can do to fix it. If you do not want to mess up your head by fixing the issue, you should check this guide.

Part 1. Why is Edit PDF Not Recognizing Text?

There are more than a couple of reasons your PDF editor like Adobe Acrobat is not recognizing text. The most common reasons are:

1. Software issues: It's highly likely that the PDF editor like Adobe Acrobat has bugs or some software glitches.

2. Scanned/Image Only PDF:  Another common reason is that the text in your file is an image and optical character recognition (OCR) is required. Also, if the OCR settings are incorrect, that may also cause text recognition issues.

Part 2. How to Fix "PDF Does Not Recognize Text"?

If your PDF editor like Adobe Acrobat does not recognize text in PDF, you have a couple of choices. Firstly, you can use alternative software. We suggest one of them which is better than most out there. Secondly, you can fix your current software, which still does not guarantee that the problem will be fixed but you can always try.

1. Use A Better Alternative - UPDF

If you want to quickly fix the problem, you can use an alternative PDF editor. Yes, it not only can be a fix to the software issue but also will allow you to quickly edit the scanned or image-only PDF. And UPDF is way cheaper and only 17% of the price you pay for Adobe Acrobat. You can check its price here. You can even get to test the features for free before signing up for the subscription. It is a better alternative for your PDF editing needs as it is compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS and one license can be applied to all the devices. So download UPDF right now by clicking the below button, it only takes a few minutes to download and set up and you don't have to delay your work any further.

Way 1. Fix "Text Not Recognized in PDF" With Edit PDF

If Adobe is not able to recognize text because of a glitch in the software, you can use UPDF to edit the PDF file. Just follow these simple steps to edit a PDF document with UPDF.

Step-1. Open your PDF file with UPDF. You can open your PDF file with UPDF in two ways. One is to open the UPDF app on your computer and then use the "Open File" tab you will see on your window or use the "Open" option in the "File" menu. The second is to right-click on the PDF file in the saved folder and click on the "Open with> UPDF" option.

Step-2. Once your file is open, you will see a series of tabs on the left of the window. Click on the "Edit PDF" tab.

To edit any text or image, click on the text or image you want to edit. The content will be highlighted with a dashed square surrounding it. You can add any text, change the font or color, bold or italicize the text.

For the image, right-click on the image and you will see a submenu with options to rotate, extract, crop, replace, or delete the image.

To add text to the file, click on the "Text" option on the top. It will allow you to add text anywhere on the page.

To add an image to the file, click on the "Image" option on the top. Then click anywhere you want to add the image and it will allow you to browse the image in the saved folder and insert it.

If you want to add any link, like a web link or link to another page in the file, you can click on the "Link option". Then click anywhere you want to add the link, and you will see a text box where you can paste the web address or the page number.

Step-3. When everything is OK, click on the "File" > "Save" to save the PDF on your computer. Now, you have no the issue of text not recognized in PDF.

Way 2. Fix "Text Not Recognized in PDF" With OCR

If your PDF editor like Adobe Acrobat is not recognizing text because you are working with a scanned PDF file, you can use UPDF to edit the PDF file. UPDF has Optical character recognition (OCR) technology to recognize any scanned PDF file. Follow these simple steps to change the scanned file to text searchable and editable file:

Step-1. Open the UPDF app on your computer and then use the "Open" option in the "File" menu or you can also see an "Open File" tab on the window itself.

Step-2. Once the PDF file is open, you will see a panel of tools on the right side of the screen. Click on the "OCR" option. You will see a popup window with options to pick for the OCR to work. You can choose the "Layout" to select if you want to keep the layout as original text or not. You can also specify the "Language" of the document, "Image resolution" and "Page Range" as per your requirement. Once done with making the selections, hit the "Perform OCR" button, and the UPDF will perform the OCR and prompt you to save the output file.

Step-3. Once the OCR has been performed to convert the scanned file into an editable file, the text in the PDF can be recognized. You can use the Edit tools in UPDF to edit, add, or delete any text or images and add any web or page links.

Isn't it very simple to work with UPDF? In a matter of a few clicks, you can get the job done. To explore all the other umpteen features, download UPDF right now. To learn more about UPDF you can also watch this YouTube video

If you do not wish to switch the software, you can also try to fix the issue using one of the methods below. We will take the Adobe Acrobat as an example in the below guides. However, the methods and steps can also be applied to other PDF Editors.

2. Fix "Edit PDF not Recognizing Text" with Update the Software

One of the most common reasons for the problem you are facing is a glitch in the software and the first thing you should do is to update the software. Usually, an update happens by itself with some software but sometimes if your computer stays without an active internet connection for a long time, you may have to push it manually. To update the Adobe Acrobat, follow these simple steps:

Step-1. Open Adobe Acrobat. You will see a "Menu" tab in the top left corner. Click to open the menu and then click on "Help" to open the help submenu. From the submenu click on "check for updates".

Step-2. If any updates are required, you will see a dialogue box saying, "Update is available". Click on the "Download and install button to start the updates.

Step-3. This will start the updating process. You may be asked to close the Adobe Acrobat to initialize updating.

Once done, the "Update successful" message box will show up.

3. Fix "Edit PDF not Recognizing Text" with Performing OCR

Another common reason for Adobe Acrobat to not recognize text is when the OCR has not been performed on the scanned file. To perform an OCR on a scanned file on Adobe Acrobat, follow these steps:

Step-1. Open your scanned file with Adobe Acrobat. You will see all tools on the left of the window. Click on "Scan and OCR". This will open a Scan and OCR menu.

Step-2. In the "Scan and OCR" menu, click on "In this file" under the "RECOGNIZE TEXT" heading. A pop will ask you for the pages in the file where OCR is required. Once you specify pages, you can also pick the language, and then hit the "Recognize text" button. Adobe will convert the scanned file to a text-editable file. Now you can edit the files as you wish.

Step-3. Now your PDF text is recognized, you can click on "All Tools" > "Edit a PDF". Click on the text to edit them. Now, you fix the "text not recognized in PDF" issue.

Final Words

If your PDF editor is not recognizing text in PDF files, there could be a couple of reasons like software glitches or incorrect OCR settings. You can try fixing the issue by updating the software and using the OCR feature but you may not be fix the problem. The easy way out is to switch to an alternative software. UPDF is five times cheaper than Adobe Acrobat and other PDF editors, has a very user-friendly interface, and can fix the issue in minutes. You can download UPDF right now and get started to fix PDF text is not recognized.