While PDF conversions are meant to be an easy, simple and hassle free way of extracting PDF content, they can’t always guarantee a process that’s problem free. There are just some things that will make converting those PDF documents more work than it should be.


Scanned documents will, more often than not, fall under this frustrating category. If you don’t notice that the PDF is a scanned file at first glance (by the page’s “grainy” look, the inability to select text when opened in Acrobat), you'll later on find out that you have to do more than just highlighting and clicking to get the job done.

For example, when the time comes for conversion, you might come across these problems:

1) The PDF file doesn’t display properly or correctly in our software viewer. For instance, if the opened PDF displays a black or blank page. In some cases, there might be black lines that cut across the page, distorting and blacking out some text.

2) The Professional version of Able2Extract recognizes a native PDF (electronically generated from an authoring application) as a scanned document, which shouldn’t happen.

3) When using the Standard version of our software, you get a pop up message that says “This page has no textual information” even though the PDF document is a native file. The software will highlight the whole page black instead of highlighting just the text.


And although it means more work, reprinting the PDF will often eliminate such errors. In order to reprint the PDF file, follow these steps and then retry the conversion:

1) Open the PDF file in Adobe Reader
2) Select File > Print
3) Change the Printer Name to ‘Adobe PDF’. Click on OK
4) Save the file as you normally would


If you don’t have Acrobat Distiller (a.k.a. Adobe Acrobat Professional), you can use Sonic PDF Creator v.2.0, available as a free trial on our website. The software will install a virtual printer onto your computer which you can access and use like the Adobe virtual printer. Once downloaded, you can use the same steps above. Just change the Printer Name to ‘Sonic PDF’ instead of ‘Adobe PDF’.


Thus, while your work may take another step or two, this tip will hopefully take some of the frustration off your shoulders.