Extract Text from Scanned Documents (Tips & Tricks)

Scanned documents are one of the hardest inputs for OCR—noise, skew, and low resolution can turn a simple task into a mess. Here are practical tricks that make a real difference.

Start with the scan settings

• Resolution: aim for 300 DPI for small fonts.
• Color mode: grayscale often works best for text.
• Compression: avoid aggressive JPEG compression.

Before OCR: quick cleanup steps

• Deskew tilted pages (even 1–2° matters).
• Crop margins so OCR focuses on text.
• Remove background shadows if the scan is uneven.

During OCR: use the right options

• Select the correct language.
• If available, enable “preserve layout” for columns.
• For forms, consider exporting to DOCX.

After OCR: verify the tricky parts

OCR often struggles with:

• 0 vs O, 1 vs l,
• headers/footers,
• tables and footnotes.

With better scanning and a small cleanup routine, extracting text from scanned documents becomes reliable—even for long reports.