ABBYY FineReader 16: Efficient PDF Editing and OCR

We’re excited to share that ABBYY FineReader 16 is now in use by The Accessibility Guy! This latest version of ABBYY FineReader provides a stronger OCR engine and a host of PDF editing tools that can make document processing easier and more efficient. In this video, we’ll provide an overview of some of the most common workflows we typically work through when using ABBYY FineReader, so let’s jump right in.

Video Guide

Launching ABBYY FineReader PDF

Launching ABBYY FineReader PDF presents two main distinctions: the PDF document side and the OCR editor. While you can use the tool as a PDF editor, we want to focus on the OCR editor, as ABBYY FineReader has one of the strongest OCR engines on the market. It can assist you in converting file types, from PDF to Word, for example, or editing the underlying text of a document and updating language settings.

Launching Abbyy FineReader 16 OCR Editor

When you launch the OCR editor, it will prompt you to open a file. Once you’ve selected your file, ABBYY FineReader will automatically perform OCR on all the pages.

You’ll see:

A thumbnail section on the far left side of the screen that displays a snapshot of all the different pages in your document.
An image panel displaying the visual aspect of your PDF, and typically matches directly with the file.
On the far right side of the screen, you’ll find the text area of ABBYY FineReader, where you can edit any of the underlying text of the program.
A zoom panel appears on the bottom of the screen and will update depending on where you are in the image panel.

Abbyy FineReader settings

Before we dive into the settings, we like to adjust our settings. For example, we’ll take this document into a searchable PDF, so we need to adjust our PDF settings. To do that, we’ll select the Tools button and then select Options. This brings up the options window where you can set a variety of settings. In the General tab, you can choose when the OCR editor begins, or you can set up a scanning device to scan documents directly into ABBYY FineReader.

We want to spend most of our time under format settings. First, select the document type. Adjust settings for different file types, like documents, spreadsheets, and PowerPoints. For PDFs, let’s look at specific settings.

Focus on image quality in accessible files. If your document has many images, choose custom settings. Change color control to “do not change image color.” This prevents quality loss. Set the quality dropdown to “quality loss not allowed.” Then, click OK.

In our video guide, I show the settings I prefer. These may not apply to you. These include creating PDF/UA with OCR. Also, MRC compression uses OCR. I also recommend ABBYY precise scan. It sharpens characters and images for searchable PDFs.

Please watch the video guide for a full walkthrough of all the new Abbyy FineReader 16 elements.

Let me be your champion for inclusion. I offer tailored solutions (and self-paced courses!) to ensure your documents meet and exceed compliance expectations. For more detailed insights, tutorials, and in-depth discussions on accessibility and related topics, don’t forget to check out my YouTube channel: The Accessibility Guy on YouTube. Subscribe for regular updates!