Difference Between Native PDFs and Scanned PDFs
A native PDF created in Microsoft Word or Adobe InDesign contains actual digital text character codes. In contrast, a scanned PDF is simply a container holding photos of paper. Without OCR, computers cannot see words—only pixels.
How Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Works
OCR algorithms inspect image brightness gradients to detect letter strokes, curves, and angles, mapping visual shapes to corresponding Unicode text characters with high statistical accuracy.
Best Practices for High-Accuracy OCR
Ensure paper is laid flat without skewed angles, avoid heavy shadows when photographing with phones, and select 300 DPI resolution for best recognition of small typography.