SnapVision and PDF


The PDF (Portable Document Format) standard created by Adobe is a document file type that can contain both text and image data. In the case of text data, Adobe Acrobat Reader has a menu item called "Find" that allows you to search for a particular text string within a document. However, this will only work on a PDF file that contains text and not a bitmap image of the text. SnapVision supports the creation of textual PDF by specifying the PDF format when you save a document. Another significant advantage of this format is file size. A text PDF file is usually only 3-5 KB per page vrs. hundreds of KB per page or more for a PDF file that contains a bitmap representation of the page. This is of course highly advantageous if the file is intended to be distributed on the web.

The PDF generated by SnapVision is 100% compatible with the Amazon Kindle.

Adding Images to the PDF Pages

It's easy to add images to your PDF pages. Simply follow the procedure listed below:

Use the left mouse button to draw a rectangle around the image area in the Image Window that you want to copy into your PDF document.

Then copy it from the Image Window.

Place the text cursor in the Text Window where you want the image to appear.

Then simply paste the image into the Text Window.

SnapVision and PDF Input

Not only can you create PDF files with SnapVision, you can read them as well. Simply do the following:

  1. Open the file in Adobe Reader.

  2. Go to the Edit->Preferences menu, click on General, and set Use fixed resolution for Snapshot tool images to 300 pixels/inch, then OK. You only need to do this once, the setting will be retained by Adobe Reader for future use.

  3. Use your mouse to select the part of the PDF you want to OCR (up to one page), and the Snapshot Tool will put it to the clipboard.

  4. In SnapVision click on Paste, the image will appear and you are able to OCR the image.

  5. For best results in SnapVision set the Settings->Image Source to From Scanner.

You can repeat steps 3 and 4 a page at a time until your entire PDF document has been read.