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Remove Cloudy Background Image Behind All Pages of a PDF in One Fell Swoop

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Written by seeker
  • 11

Hi!

I'm a new user to Fine Reader, so apologies for the newbie-ish level of questions!! :)

Here is an old document that has been scanned and shared online. The pages have faded.

The text is still valuable, but the page color gets in the way.

Seems that in the scan the page color we see is defined apart from the text, exiting as a background image.

It is possible to delete this background image from each page, leaving just the text.

Although there's some risk to doing this in terms of what could be lost from the document, it is minimal for my purposes.

Trouble is, there's over a hundred pages, and for some files a couple of hundred.

For the PDF tool I'm using now - PDF X-Change Editor - there's no bulk method of deleting the background image. I've got to do them one page at a time.

Is there any way using Fine Reader that could remove that background image from every page in one go?

Wanted to add, as well, when I see how outstanding the Fine Reader is, especially in scanning / recognition, I feel impressed.  Thank you for making this product! 

Sincerely,

OT

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11 comments

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    Nina Blokhina

    Hello OT, please try saving the recognized PDF as Text and pictures only:

     

    In this case background pictures won't be saved.

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    Yuriy Korotkevych

    Hi OT,

    Try also image preprcessing tools when converting this type of PDFs to clean them up. If you're in the PDF Editor, click an arrow on the right to the "Recognize" button on the main toolbar, choose "Recognize and Verify in OCR Editor". In the OCR Editor, click "Edit Image" button on the tool pane above the page image. There, try "Whiten Background" in "Photo Correction", "Remove Color Marks", and "Levels" or "Brightness and Contrast" may help as well. If the text doesn't look smooth enough, you may also try to apply Precise Scan: use the options "Use MRC compression" and "Apply ABBYY Presise Scan to smooth..." that you can see right above the red frame on the screenshot provided by Nina in her reply above.

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    seeker
    • Edited

    Hello Nina & Yuri,

    Thank you for the kind and detailed replies! :D!

    Nina, when I selected File > Save As I didn't get the interface of options you illustrated.  How can I get the program to offer me this interface during Save As (Using ABBYY Reader 14).

    Sincerely,

    OT

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    seeker
    • Edited

    Hi Nina!

    Ah!  GOT IT! In the Tools Tab > Options.

    Conversion went through and the resulting file is just what I hoped for! :D

    All the text is there AND it is much more responsive without those big images.  SUPER

    When the process was ended I got this warning:

    What do you think happened?

    Sincerely,

    OT

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  • Avatar
    seeker

    Hi Yuriy,

    I ran your suggestion, too.  WOW!  SOOOOO many features! :D

    Two questions, Yuriy, please.

    It seemed your solution ALSO made the file more responsive.  Did the whitening and other tricks actually make the images smaller > faster page turns?

    Also, in BOTH the corrections, yours and Nina's - I'm reading an old book with lots of Latin phrases that are italicized.  Seems like most of them are not being recognized correctly.  What can I do to increase the conversion of Latin italicized words.

    The words aren't using any script - just straight English letters, italicized.

    Sincerely,

    OT

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    Yuriy Korotkevych

    Hi OT,

    Latin is supported by FineReader PDF, add it to the list of languages applied to the document in the settings. 

    "Did the whitening and other tricks actually make the images smaller > faster page turns?" - It might; if you applied PreciseScan, then the MRC compression was applied too, and that should make the file size smaller. Also, there's an option to reduce PDF file size in the PDF Editor, which can be done without converting it in the OCR Editor.

    Best,

    Yuriy

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  • Avatar
    seeker

    Hi Yuriy,

    Got it on the Latin.  Will apply and let you know how it goes.

    More testimony for the strength of your technology here >

    if you applied PreciseScan, then the MRC compression was applied too, and that should make the file size smaller. Also, there's an option to reduce PDF file size in the PDF Editor, which can be done without converting it in the OCR Editor.

    Outstanding! :)))

    Thank you for the detailed explanation.

    Sincerely,

    OT

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    Nina Blokhina

    Hi OT, regarding your question with "Document title not specified" warning. This can be shown if you are saving as PDF/A with no Title in metadata. Fill the Title in in if you don't want this message to be shown:

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  • Avatar
    seeker
    • Edited

    Hello Yuriy & Nina,

    Happy New Year!

    Revisiting this question with a new document.

    Yuriy, you wrote:

    ...click an arrow on the right to the "Recognize" button on the main toolbar, choose "Recognize and Verify in OCR Editor".  

    Please can you upload an image?  I can't see the arrow you're mentioning there.

    Sincerely

    OT

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  • Avatar
    seeker
    • Edited

    Hi Yuriy,

    Ah!  Found IT!

    Also, you asked: "Did the whitening and other tricks actually make the images smaller > faster page turns?" - It might;

    YES!!  Phenomenally much so!  Like a BRAND-NEW book!  Thank you for pointing me toward those features.

    Also, you mentioned:

    Also, there's an option to reduce PDF file size in the PDF Editor, which can be done without converting it in the OCR Editor.

    Please can you show me where that is?

    Sincerely,

    OT

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  • Avatar
    Yuriy Korotkevych

    Hi OT,

    It's in the "File" menu:

    Happy New Year to you too!

    Best regards,

    Yuriy

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