Digitize Paper Documents

Why this workflow?

Step-by-step workflow

1. 1
   Scan or photograph documents

   OCR PDF

   Use a flatbed scanner, document scanner, or phone camera app to capture paper documents as PDF or image files.

2. 2
   Apply OCR

   Compress PDF

   Run the OCR tool to add a searchable text layer to every page — making the content searchable, selectable, and copy-pasteable.

3. 3
   Compress for storage

   Compress the OCR'd PDFs to reduce file size by 40-70% — critical when digitizing thousands of pages for cloud archival.

4. 4
   Organize and archive

   Rename files consistently, organize into folders by date or category, and upload to your cloud storage or document management system.

Common document challenges

• Filing cabinets full of paper documents that cannot be searched or accessed remotely
• Scanned PDFs that are just images — you cannot search, copy, or extract text from them
• Large scanned files consuming excessive cloud storage space and bandwidth
• No consistent naming or organization when converting paper to digital
• Losing important documents because paper copies are damaged, misfiled, or misplaced

Tools used in this workflow

Frequently asked questions

How accurate is the OCR on scanned documents?

For clean scans at 300 DPI or higher, OCR accuracy is typically 95-99% for printed text. Accuracy decreases with poor scan quality, handwritten text, unusual fonts, or very small text. For best results, scan at 300 DPI in grayscale or black-and-white.

Can I OCR documents in languages other than English?

Yes. The OCR engine supports over 100 languages including Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi, Russian, and many more. Select the document language before processing for best accuracy.

Will compression reduce OCR accuracy?

No. The OCR step should be performed before compression. OCR adds a text layer to the original high-quality scan. Compression then reduces the image quality for storage efficiency, but the text layer is already embedded and remains fully searchable.

What scanning resolution should I use?

300 DPI is the standard recommendation for OCR. Higher resolutions (400-600 DPI) improve accuracy for small text but produce larger files. 200 DPI works for large, clear text but may reduce accuracy on detailed documents.

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