Text PDF versus scanned PDF: how to tell the difference
By PDFEditor.ae · Published
Two kinds of PDF
A text PDF is made by software — Word, a browser, an accounting system. It stores the characters, so you can select, search and copy them. A scanned PDF stores a picture of each page. It can look identical on screen but behaves like a photo.
Three quick checks
- Select: drag across one line. Text PDFs highlight word by word; scans highlight nothing or the whole page.
- Search: press Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on Mac) and look for a word you can see. A scan returns no matches.
- Zoom: enlarge to 400%. Real text stays crisp; scanned text becomes soft or pixelated.
Why it matters
- Text extraction (PDF to Word, PDF to Excel, Extract PDF Text) only works on text PDFs.
- Lossless compression shrinks text PDFs more than scans.
- Both types can be merged, split, rotated, signed and filled in exactly the same way.
Mixed files
A single PDF can contain both: typed pages plus a few scanned attachments. Extraction then returns text only for the typed pages. If some pages come back empty, check them with the steps above.