How to Change Fonts Faster When Editing Scanned PDFs in Acrobat
Question details
The user is looking for a faster method to change fonts across multiple OCR text boxes while editing a scanned book.
- Product
- Adobe Acrobat
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Editing recognized OCR text within a scanned PDF document.
- Observed behavior
- The software requires the user to change the font individually in many separate text boxes, which is inefficient for large documents.
Ensure your scanned document has already undergone Optical Character Recognition (OCR) so that the text is active, selectable, and ready for editing.
Use Keyboard Shortcuts to Quickly Locate Fonts
Since Acrobat does not have a bulk font-change feature for separate OCR boxes, use keyboard inputs in the font dropdown to speed up manual editing.
When Acrobat performs OCR on a scanned book, it often separates paragraphs and lines into distinct bounding boxes to preserve the original layout. This prevents you from selecting all text at once to change the font.
Open your scanned PDF in Adobe Acrobat and click on the 'Edit PDF' tool in the right-hand pane.
Click inside the specific OCR text box where you want to change the font.
Locate the Format panel on the right side of the screen and click on the font dropdown menu.
Type the exact name of your desired font or press its initial letter on your keyboard to instantly jump to it, rather than scrolling manually.
Export to a Word Processor for Bulk Formatting
For extensive formatting changes across a whole book, converting the PDF to a Word document is much faster than editing individual boxes in Acrobat.
Easily Edit and Format Scanned PDFs with WPS Office
WPS PDF offers robust built-in OCR technology and seamless PDF-to-Word conversion. Instead of battling individual text boxes, you can extract text from scanned books and change fonts globally in seconds.
- 1. Open the Scanned PDF: Launch WPS Office and open your scanned PDF document in the WPS PDF editor.
- 2. Convert PDF to Word: Navigate to the 'Tools' tab and click on 'PDF to Word' to initiate the conversion process with OCR enabled.
- 3. Select All Text: Once the document opens in WPS Writer, press Ctrl+A to select all the text in the book.
- 4. Change the Font globally: Choose your preferred font from the Home tab to apply the change instantly across the entire document, then export it back to PDF.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I select all text in a PDF to change the font at once in Acrobat?
In scanned PDFs with multiple OCR text boxes, Acrobat does not allow you to select text across different bounding boxes to change the font simultaneously. You must edit them individually or convert the file to a Word document for bulk editing.
Why does Acrobat create separate text boxes when editing scanned PDFs?
During the OCR (Optical Character Recognition) process, Acrobat attempts to preserve the exact original layout and typography of the scanned page, which often results in text being fragmented into multiple separate text boxes.
What is the fastest way to format a scanned book?
The most efficient method for extensive formatting, such as changing fonts across an entire scanned book, is to export the PDF to a Word document format (.docx), apply global font changes in a word processor, and then save it back as a PDF.
