Making a scanned PDF accessible with OCR
A scanned PDF is a picture of a page. There is no real text in it, so Read Aloud, the Dictionary and screen readers have nothing to work with, and searching finds nothing. This is why a worksheet that looks fine on screen can be completely unusable for a student who needs it read to them.
Mote spots the problem for you
When you open a PDF that is a scan, or is otherwise inaccessible, Mote detects it and offers to run OCR. You do not have to work out why the document will not read.
Running OCR
- Open the scanned PDF in Mote PDF.
- When Mote offers to make it accessible, choose the language the document is written in.
- Run it. Mote adds an invisible, selectable text layer over the scanned pages.
The page looks exactly the same afterwards. The text layer sits behind the image rather than replacing it - be sure to save the file locally or to your Google Drive to make the changes permanent.
What works once it has run
- Read Aloud reads the page, including Play Page across the whole document.
- The Dictionary looks up any word.
- Translation handles a passage.
- The Screen Mask cuts glare while reading.
- The document becomes searchable, and works with a screen reader.
Getting the best result
Choose the correct document language. A clear scan gives a cleaner text layer than a photograph taken at an angle, so if you are producing the scans yourself it is worth scanning flat and straight.
With the text layer in place, see Reading a PDF aloud and Using Mote Chrome Extension tools inside Mote PDF.