ABBYY FineReader Overview 2025

ABBYY FineReader empowers you to do it all: edit, convert, and optimize PDF documents, especially scanned or image-based ones, into fully accessible and editable formats. Today’s post shows how you can use ABBYY FineReader PDF to transform documents into inclusive, user-friendly resources.

Video Guide

Edit and Manage PDFs with Ease

ABBYY FineReader gives you powerful tools to manage and modify your PDFs directly. You can:

• Reorganize pages: Move, crop, replace, or add pages quickly.
• Highlight content: Apply color-coded highlights to emphasize key text.
• Add notes: Insert comment boxes for collaboration or clarification.
• Edit text directly: Fix typos or insert new content within the document.
• Update headers and footers: Customize the structure to match formatting needs.
• Insert media: Add images or text blocks to enhance your PDFs.

These tools turn ABBYY into a full-featured PDF editor that helps you keep documents up-to-date and polished.

Create Interactive PDF Forms

You can use ABBYY’s form editor to insert interactive elements such as:

• Text fields
• Checkboxes
• Radio buttons

These features make it easy to create fillable forms for surveys, applications, and feedback collection.

Convert Documents with OCR for Accessibility

The software’s standout feature is its Optical Character Recognition (OCR), which lets you convert image-based PDFs and scans into editable and accessible documents.

Use the OCR Editor to Start

When you launch the OCR editor, ABBYY:

• Shows bookmarks on the left
• Displays the PDF visually in the center
• Lists extracted text on the right

You should confirm that the visual and text panels align. When they don’t, you can fix this with built-in tools.

Define Zones to Capture Text Accurately

You can create custom zones on your document by dragging over regions like:

• Titles
• Headings
• Paragraphs or lists

Once you define zones, select “Recognize Page,” and ABBYY converts them into live, editable text.

Set the Correct Reading Order

To help screen readers process content logically, you need to:

• Reorder zones manually
• Use the “Reorder Areas” feature to set the correct flow
• Check the numbering in the corner of each zone

This process ensures your document reads correctly when used with assistive technologies.

Export to a Wide Range of Formats

After finalizing your text and layout, you can export documents into formats such as:

• Microsoft Word
• Searchable PDF
• Excel
• HTML
• RTF

ABBYY preserves headings, bookmarks, and table layouts during export. After export, be sure to manually review your document for accessibility to ensure compliance.

Process Scanned Images Efficiently

ABBYY shines when you need to convert multiple scanned pages into structured, editable documents. It runs batch OCR, applies your zone settings, and outputs clean files that are ready for use.

ABBYY FineReader PDF puts powerful accessibility tools at your fingertips. You can edit, OCR, and export PDFs into accessible formats with ease. Its ability to handle scanned images, define text zones, and adjust reading order makes it ideal for educators, accessibility professionals, and anyone managing digital content.

If you want to turn static scans into inclusive resources, ABBYY FineReader gives you everything you need in one intuitive package.

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!