Linux – How to take notes in PDFs in Linux

I too have looked for a way to batch-OCR many PDFs in an automated manner, without much luck. In the end I have come up with a workable solution similar to yours, using Acrobat with a script as follows:

1. Copy all relevant PDFs to a specific directory.

2. Remove PDFs already containing text (assuming they are already OCRd or already text - not ideal I know, but good enough for now).

3. Use AutoHotKey to automatically run Acrobat, select the specific directory, and OCR all documents, appending "-ocr" to their filename.

4. Move the OCRd PDFs back to their original location, using the presence of a "-ocr.pdf" file to determine whether it was successful.

It is a bit Heath Robinson, but actually works pretty well.

This is how I did it in Adobe Acrobat XI Standard:

• no need for the Action Wizard
• no need for AutoIt

The trick is to ensure no PDF files are open in Adobe Acrobat XI Standard. Then the Reduce side PDF... behaviour is different.

I used C:\temp as folder for the steps below. You can enhance the steps by

• using files from any set of folders
• drag/drop files from Windows Explorer, or compatible tool (like Everything Search Engine) to the list of files to process

These are the steps I used

1. Start Adobe Acrobat XI Standard, ensure there are no PDF files opened
2. in the File menu choose, Save as Other... then Reduced size PDF...
3. in the Arrange Documents dialog, choose Add Files..., then Add Files... (confused? see the images below)
4. in the Add Files dialog, select a bunch of PDF files
5. repeat steps 3. and 4 when needed, or drag files from Windows Explorer, Everything Search Engine, et cetera
6. in the Arrange Documents dialog, press OK
7. in the Reduce File Size dialog, from the Make compatible with listbox, choose Acrobat 10 and later, then press OK
8. in the Output Options dialog, keep the settings, then press OK
9. wait until the progress dialog has shown all files have been processed and returns itself to the main Adobe Acrobat XI Standard window

Notes:

• The wait can take very long, especially with thousands of files

• I converted on copies of each directory so I could view before/after results

  1. Started Adobe Acrobat XI Standard
  2. Main window: Chose File, then Save as Other..., then Reduced size PDF...
  3. Arrange Documents dialog: Chose Add Files..., then Add Files...
  4. Add files dialog: Added files from C:\temp
  5. Arrange Documents dialog: Choose OK
  6. Reduce File Size dialog: chose Acrobat 10 and later, then OK
  7. Output Options dialog: kept the settings, then pressed OK
  8. Progress dialog: wait until all files have been processed