Convert scans of handwritten text to one pdf document

grace2much

Hi all, need some advice on the best way/free software to take up to 10 A4 pages of handwritten text that I will scan and then I need to convert these 10 pages/scans into 1 pdf document. Its for an online university course and they need the answers in pdf format so the tutor can mark and send back.

Any advice would be great....thanks

Shrimply

PDFSAM will do it for you.

http://www.pdfsam.org/

glentoran99

can your scanner not do it directly? as a multipage document?

grace2much

glentoran99, thanks for mentioning that just had a look and I think I may be able to do that. If so that would be really handy.

agrinnall

glentoran99 wrote: »

can your scanner not do it directly? as a multipage document?

I first read it as wanting to convert the handwriting to text then save it to a single PDF, but on re-reading I don't think that is it, so I'd agree, my scanner would do exactly what you suggest without needing any more software.

poppellerant

You could be just as quick typing the pages into your computer. I imagine it's going to take some time to find software that can convert handwriting to text, then you need to proofread it and correct any errors.

grace2much

Sorry for no making myself clear.

I have no problems with my scanner automatically saving each a4 page of text as a separate pdf file but I can't see any way to merge these 10 pdf pages'files into one pdf file with 10 pages that the tutor can scroll through all 10 pages without needing to open each page individually.

My printer/scanner is quite old and basic maybe that's why I don't have the merge facility. I have found an online site http://smallpdf.com/ that does this for me though and it looks very straight forward. So this seems to be the way I need to go.

My only concern is with anything online is the worry of privacy although my pdf are not that important I tried to look for a site with lots of positive reviews and saw this smallpdf on the google chrome app store. So hopefully it will be ok.

grace2much

poppellerant wrote: »

You could be just as quick typing the pages into your computer. I imagine it's going to take some time to find software that can convert handwriting to text, then you need to proofread it and correct any errors.

You misunderstood me. I have scanned my handwritten answers (its maths) into separate pdf files now I want to merge these pdfs into one pdf file for ease of reading. I do ...not... need to change handwriting into text. Sorry for the mix up

tyllwyd

I've been using the free PDFill PDF tools for a few years now to merge pdf files and delete pages etc.


https://www.pdfill.com/

tronator

grace2much wrote: »

Sorry for no making myself clear.

I have no problems with my scanner automatically saving each a4 page of text as a separate pdf file but I can't see any way to merge these 10 pdf pages'files into one pdf file with 10 pages that the tutor can scroll through all 10 pages without needing to open each page individually.

My printer/scanner is quite old and basic maybe that's why I don't have the merge facility. I have found an online site http://smallpdf.com/ that does this for me though and it looks very straight forward. So this seems to be the way I need to go.

My only concern is with anything online is the worry of privacy although my pdf are not that important I tried to look for a site with lots of positive reviews and saw this smallpdf on the google chrome app store. So hopefully it will be ok.

The answer PDFSam was given to you already. It does this and much more.

It will need Java though. If you don't have it yet, install it but disable the browser plugin in Control Panel -> Java -> "Security" tab.

paddyrg

Some scanners have a sheet feeder, and often come with accompanying software which will scan them all to one pdf. If this is a regular thing then it might be worth investing in a new multifunction printer with a sheet feeder - there are some real bargains to be had, for instance a panasonic mono laser for under £100.

If it's not a regular thing, maybe find a friend who has one, otherwise pdfsam is what you need. The interface isn't intuitive, but it does the job :-)