Troubleshoot scanning

1. On the File menu, click Scan New Document.
2. In the Scan New Document dialog box, select a preset from the list.

   The Black and white preset is optimized for optical character recognition (OCR) when scanning black text on white paper. If you are scanning a document with color content, lighter text, or colored paper, try the Black and white from color page preset. The Grayscale preset is good for scanning continuous-tone images (such as photographs) with text.

You can only change the scanning resolution if the Show scanner driver dialog before scanning check box is clear in the Choose Scanner dialog box.

1. On the File menu, click Scan New Document.
2. In the Scan New Document dialog box, click a preset from the list.
3. Click Preset options, and then click Edit selected preset.
4. In the Preset Options dialog box, click Advanced.
5. Click the arrow to the right of the Resolution (DPI) list and choose a higher number.

   Note  The higher the resolution, the more space the resulting file will require on your hard disk.

Try another scanning preset

1. On the File menu, click Scan New Document.
2. In the Scan New Document dialog box, click a preset from the list.

   The Color preset is optimized for scanning photographs and artwork. If you are scanning a document with continuous-tone, non-color content, try the Grayscale preset.

You can only change the scanning resolution if the Show scanner driver dialog before scanning check box is clear in the Choose Scanner dialog box.

1. On the File menu, click Scan New Document.
2. In the Scan New Document dialog box, click a preset.
3. Click Preset options, and then click Edit selected preset.
4. In the Preset Options dialog box, click Advanced.
5. Click the arrow to the right of the Resolution (DPI) list and choose a higher number.

   Note  The higher the resolution, the more space the resulting file will require on your hard disk.

If your scanned pages are slightly misaligned, or scanned sideways or upside down, OCR quality will suffer. First, be sure the page is placed straight on the scanner bed. With a document that has already been scanned, try the following:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the OCR tab.
2. Ensure that the Auto rotate and Auto straighten check boxes are selected.
3. Click OK.
4. On the Tools menu, click Recognize Text Using OCR to rerun OCR on the document and apply the two alignment options.

Use clean pages with high contrast between the text and the background and with a monotonic background. OCR does not perform as well on low contrast pages or on a background with varying color or brightness.

Even if their alphabets are similar, you should specify the language of the document you are scanning if it is different from the Office language setting.

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the OCR tab.
2. In the OCR Language list, select the language you want, and then click OK.
3. On the Tools menu, click Recognize Text Using OCR.

1. On the File menu, click Scan New Document.
2. In the Scan New Document dialog box, click a preset from the list.

   Notes

   • The Black and white preset is optimized for OCR when scanning black text on white paper. If you are scanning a document with color content, lighter text, or colored paper, try the Black and white from color page preset.

   • Whenever possible, scan pages in black and white. Good black and white scanning results in as few as possible broken character strokes, blurred strokes, touching characters, and speckles.

For Asian characters equal to or smaller than the equivalent English 10 point font size, try a scanning resolution of higher than 300 dpi.

You can only change the scanning resolution if the Show scanner driver dialog before scanning check box is clear in the Choose Scanner dialog box.

1. On the File menu, click Scan New Document.
2. In the Scan New Document dialog box, select a preset from the list.
3. Click Preset options, and then click Edit selected preset.
4. In the Preset Options dialog box, click Advanced.
5. Click the arrow to the right of the Resolution (DPI) list and choose a higher number.

   Note  The higher the resolution, the more space the resulting file will require on your hard disk.

All of the built-in presets have been designed to produce scans of optimum quality at the fastest scanning speed and the smallest file size.

1. On the File menu, click Scan New Document.
2. In the Scan New Document dialog box, click a preset from the list. The Black and white preset provides the fastest scanning speed.

Decrease the scanning resolution

You can only change the scanning resolution if the Show scanner driver dialog before scanning check box is clear in the Choose Scanner dialog box.

The higher the dots-per-inch resolution you are using to scan your document, the longer it will take to scan. In addition, the size of the file on your hard disk will increase.

1. On the File menu, click Scan New Document.
2. In the Scan New Document dialog box, select a preset from the list.
3. Click Preset options, and then click Edit selected preset.
4. In the Preset Options dialog box, click Advanced.
5. Click the arrow to the right of the Resolution (DPI) list and choose a lower number.

   Note  Optical character recognition (OCR) may lose accuracy at lower resolutions.

All of the built-in presets have been designed to produce scans of optimum quality at the fastest scanning speed and the smallest file size.

1. On the File menu, click Scan New Document.
2. In the Scan New Document dialog box, click a preset from the list.

   The Black and white or Black and white from color page presets will produce the smallest file sizes.

Decrease the scanning resolution

You can only change the scanning resolution if the Show scanner driver dialog before scanning check box is clear in the Choose Scanner dialog box.

The higher the dots-per-inch resolution you are using to scan your document, the longer it will take to scan. In addition, the size of the file on your hard disk will increase.

1. On the File menu, click Scan New Document.
2. In the Scan New Document dialog box, select a preset from the list.
3. Click Preset options, and then click Edit selected preset.
4. In the Preset Options dialog box, click Advanced.
5. Click the arrow to the right of the Resolution (DPI) list and choose a lower number.

   Note  Optical character recognition (OCR) may lose accuracy at lower resolutions.

The page pane has two modes: Select and Pan. When Pan is activated, the mouse cursor is in the shape of a hand. The two modes are toggles, meaning that only one can be active at a time.

• Open the View menu. If the Pan command is selected, click Select to enable text selection in the page pane.

Check to see if Select Annotations mode is activated

You cannot select text when the Select Annotations command is selected

• Open the View menu. If the Select command is not selected, click Select to enable text selection in the page pane.

You need to run OCR

You can select text in the page pane only after optical character recognition (OCR) has been performed. To do so, click Recognize Text Using OCR on the Tools menu.

1. On the File menu, click Scan New Document.
2. In the Scan New Document dialog box, click Scanner, and then make sure the correct scanner is selected in the Scanner list.
3. Make sure that the Use automatic document feeder check box is selected.

1. On the File menu, click Scan New Document.
2. In the Scan New Document dialog box, click a preset from the list.
3. Click Preset options, and then click Edit selected preset.
4. On the Page tab of the Preset Options dialog box, clear the Save each page as a separate document check box.