PDF size blown up after OCR?

DEVONthink Tips
1

Hi,

I am new to DT and testing the software. If I scan (Fujitsu ScanSnap) directly to DT, the PDF’s get recognised (up to the 20 a day test version limit). Today when I wanted to OCR the PDF’s in DT that did not OCR yesterday, I can see a considerable increase after OCR of the PDF size? A small receipt of 74Kb PDF gets after OCR blown up to 1MB??? Is this normal?

Best regards

SmartDust

2

Yes, as has been discussed in different threads on this forum. The way we set up the OCR process, the original image gets converted to a colour image. Hence the size increase. And before you ask: no we’re not planning to customise it. You could use an Automator workflow to decrease the size, there is an example on how to do this in the disk image.

3

When you OCR an existing PDF the original image is not retained, but a new one is created. The resulting PDF will generally be larger.

DTPO Preferences> OCR provides user options for the dpi and image quality of this New image. The default settings are 150 dpi and 50%. These settings are a compromise to reduce file size but retain readable and printable PDF files.

Most of my ScanSnap scans are done in black & white using the ‘Best’ image quality setting. Searchable PDF will average about 150 to 200 KB per 8.5 × 11 inch page, depending on content. Color scans will be larger.

I would not expect a PDF size of 1 MB for a small receipt, but perhaps 100 KB. Did you change those Preferences> OCR settings?

4

Bill,

Thanks for the reply… you’ve pointed me into the right direction. I fiddled with the DPI settings. I will reset them to default and see what happens.

Best Regards

SmartDust