# Convert Photocopy to Word ? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 1, 2007, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convert-photocopy-to-word/421115 "2007-10-01T04:08:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convert-photocopy-to-word/421115/1 "2007-10-01T04:08:01Z")
Is there a good way or good software to do it, if it’s even possible? I’d like to be able to edit the text. I’d rather not buy Adobe if I can help it. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convert-photocopy-to-word/421115/2 "2007-10-01T04:24:04Z")
Character recognition software? An old scanner I used to have came bundled with that software. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convert-photocopy-to-word/421115/3 "2007-10-01T05:01:35Z")
Depends on what you mean by “photocopy.” A scanned paper document is theoretically readable by various OCR software apps, with varying degrees of success and accuracy. I’m not sure what “buying Adobe” means— I’m assuming you’re talking about Adobe Acrobat. If you have an Acrobat (.pdf) file, converted from some other program such as MS Word or FrameMaker, and the full version (not the free reader) of Acrobat, you should be able to make some edits to the .pdf file using the “TouchUp Text” tool, but even that is somewhat limited. If you’re talking about literally taking a scanned photocopy of a document and converting it into Word, your options are pretty much to retype it in Word yourself, or try using an Optical Character Recognition program to scan it (after which you’ll probably need to review it and correct all the things it scanned incorrectly). Not sure whether there are any decent freeware OCR apps out there either, though— it’s been years since I used one and I wasn’t overly impressed at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convert-photocopy-to-word/421115/4 "2007-10-01T05:29:09Z")
[QUOTE=Vinyl Turnip] If you’re talking about literally taking a scanned photocopy of a document and converting it into Word, your options are pretty much to retype it in Word yourself, or try using an Optical Character Recognition program to scan it (after which you’ll probably need to review it and correct all the things it scanned incorrectly). [/QUOTE] That’s what I was thinking. All things considered, it’s probably easier to just type it. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convert-photocopy-to-word/421115/5 "2007-10-01T05:59:35Z")
If this is a one-time job, and the copy is good enough, ask at a local computer user group - there’s bound to be someone who already has OCR software. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convert-photocopy-to-word/421115/6 "2007-10-01T12:00:59Z")
[QUOTE=Vinyl Turnip] If you have an Acrobat (.pdf) file, converted from some other program such as MS Word or FrameMaker, and the full version (not the free reader) of Acrobat, you should be able to make some edits to the .pdf file using the “TouchUp Text” tool, but even that is somewhat limited. [/QUOTE] PDFs can contain scanned images as well as (or instead of) editable text. We have a copier at work that will send you a PDF of what you place on its scan bed, but the PDF simply contains a JPEG (and is bloody big as well). There is no OCR involved.