Scanning documents - Tips required

aarjay777

Hi folks,

I've just recently started scanning documents so that I no longer have to keep paper. As a novice i could do with some help on the rights and wrongs.

If I want to store for example 12 pages into 1 document i find that selecting PDF will accomodate this so that it easier for me to recall this file. The only problem i am experiencing here it the amount of memory it is taken up. For example a 12 page document is using over 3mb which is enourmous when compared to a PDF that i may download for the internet.

Is this normal?

Is there a way to compress the size of the file?

Is there any good software that you can recommend because the HP software I am using automatically trims the document and i find myself resizing each page which a complete paid.

I have tried contacting HP technical department for assistance and I am still waiting on a response.

Thanks in advance.

tigermatt

aarjay777 wrote:

Is there a way to compress the size of the file?

A quick search for PDF Compress on Google turned up a few programs that you had to pay for to download and use them. :rolleyes:

So, I looked again and a bit further down the page, I found this site: http://www.bureausoft.com/products.html The page is related to PDFs and most of the programs are purchase programs except the PDF Compress which has (Freeware) next to it. http://www.bureausoft.com/products.html#PDF Compress (Freeware)

Here is what the site says about the program:

Reduce the actual size of PDF files by compressing text and graphics. Compressed PDF files can be opened and viewed normally by Adobe Acrobat Reader all versions.

I think this is the sort of program you are looking for. It will compress the PDF file to a much smaller size as said in the quote...

I hope this helps, tigermatt

JohnFlax

Do you really need a 'photograph' of your documents?

I find that scanning and converting to editable text much more useful. Unfortunately every scanner has different software but all of them should recognise text characters and convert them to an editable format (OCR).

One minor irritation with my OCR software is that every line of copied text ends with a Return ¶. To overcme this I've written a short macro that:

1. Replaces the end of each paragraph (¶¶) with *~*~
2. Deletes all Returns
3. Replaces *~*~ with ¶¶

Obviously some correction may be necessary when paragraph start with a Tab or a number of spaces.

I usually save the scanned document with other relevant documents, e.g. my original enquiry or reply.

Hope this helps