The batch OCR feature is simply not fit for purpose and needs completely replacing.

1. When performing a batch OCR the application is entirely locked into the process and is unable to do any other tasks. Acrobat installs itself as the default PDF viewer, so you cannot even view a PDF by default when the OCR process is running. There needs to be a way to run these batch processes as true background tasks that do not interfere with other Acrobat functions, or the ability to open multiple instances of Acrobat.

2. The batch process will often crash without warning or error message, I simply come back later and find Acrobat is closed and only a few of my files were converted.

3. On the Mac (latest OS) when a batch is running it does NOT behave nicely with the rest of the system. It sets the cursor pointer to the 'busy wristwatch' SYSTEM WIDE, not just for when the actual Acrobat app is in focus. It also likes to bring the Acrobat window to the front a LOT, which means you have to drag Acrobat off screen to stop it interfering with other things.

The automation for OCR is clearly a hack that's been put on top of an architecture that was never designed to be automated.

When will we get a modern application that justifies the monthly fees we pay for this?

Acrobat DC for Mac's OCR continuously mis-recognizes standardized OCR characters such as those on checks and commercial forms. Those characters are designed to be highly readable at high speed and a standard quality scan (let alone a high quality one) should be sufficient for proper recognition by Acrobat.

Similarly, it routinely tries to translate address codes (the string of full and half-height vertical bars used by postal readers to sort mail), even if it does occasionally recognize the entire code as one "word." Fortunately, it usually includes it for review, but it shouldn't be difficult to recognize the standardized format, or even catch that "IiIII1II1IIi!ii" is highly unlikely to not be text, especially when it goes on for 2-3+ inches. (If anything, I would expect Acrobat to recognize the code as its alphanumeric translation--not a feature I'm requesting.)

QR-type codes also should be recognizable as such. Both the large consumer size and the small "thumbnail" commercial size found on forms and bills are a standard that Acrobat's OCR engine "knows" and doesn't try to recognize as text characters.

All cases are consistent errors based on 300 ppi black & white scans with no compression, from "crisp" printing and no background. This has been replicated on four scanners from three separate manufacturers, two sheet-fed only (Brother and Epson) and two both sheet-fed and single page from the platen glass (high- and mid-grade HP OfficeJet series).

The user review feature of OCR allows limited correction of Acrobat's low-confidence recognition instances. After--or separate from--that process, users should be allowed to correct any recognized text--often, even when using the review feature, words are broken up, making search difficult. Users should be able to combine or split Acrobat's character groupings--to separate or connect those text blocks to match the word / sentence structure for proper searching. Basic Machine Learning (and even decades old OCR) used dictionary matching to help assess the probability of correct interpretation--this also should be able to determine that "correction" is a more likely translation than "cor" "rection". Even if it didn't users, should be able to link the two to one word--or split "userreview" to "user" "review". (Hypothetical examples but very similar to actual document translation at 300ppi high-contrast, high quality, black and white, no background.)

Hello,

I have a "problem" with the OCR technology in Acrobat Pro 2017 for Mac. When I edit a scanned file with OCR ("Searchable image", 300 dpi), the words and letters are recognised correctly, but the character spacing (when selecting the words) does not match the original font width (see screenshot). I noticed that this problem also occurs with Acrobat Pro 2020 for Mac, but not with the Windows version. On the other hand, this problem did not occur with Acrobat Pro XI for Mac.

I would be very grateful if you could solve this problem. My Mac is running macOS Big Sur 11.2.3. and the latest update for Acrobat Pro 2017.