Author Archives: ARoberts

Adobe Acrobat: “Renderable Text”

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When working with PDF documents you may encounter a “renderable text” error message.  This message will sometimes occur when trying to make a scanned paper PDF file text searchable (also know as adding OCR to a document).

error messageDepending on the version of Acrobat you have, the message may read something like:

“Renderable text” is typically text that has been added to an scanned paper image (like a header, footer or bates number), through a non-Acrobat program.  The way this text is encoded into the page can cause Acrobat to disallow additional searchable text (OCR text).

This message can certainly be annoying and it can also be significant as it can limit your ability to run searches.  In Acrobat, you will be unable to add new searchable OCR text, or improve the quality of the existing OCR, until the error is fixed.

If you’ve seen this message before, and have tried to fix the document without success, you are not alone!  We spoken with a number of people over the years who have come up with some creative solutions.  Though we have yet to find “one solution” that will always fix this particular error, here are a number of possible solutions (results will vary depending on the cause of the error):

Solution 1: Obtain a version of the document with OCR.

  • It may seem simplistic, but if you receive documents without searchable OCR, ask for it.  Often the person or organization that gave it to you will want to search the files themselves and may already have a copy that has been OCR’ed.  Even if the documents they give you generate “renderable text” error messages, you will still be able to search any of the existing OCR text within the files.

Solution 2: If the files are from PACER / ECF, download a new copy.

  • The default download settings in PACER / ECF will add “purple” headers with the case number (which will cause a “renderable text” error message).  If you can find the document again in PACER / ECF, download it with the header option turned off.

Solution 3: Run “Add Tags to Document” (available in Acrobat Pro).
accessibility menu

  • If you have Acrobat Pro installed there is a special “Accessibility” menu where you can run “Add Tags to Document”.  For certain PDF’s, running this option will clear up the issue and allow the document OCR to be run.

Solution 4: Print the document to PDF (available in Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Pro).

  • If you have Acrobat installed (Standard or Pro) you’ll probably also have access to an “Acrobat PDF” virtual printer.  By printing the document to this virtual printer, the new PDF that is created will often avoid having the renderable text issue.

Solution 5: “Sanitize” the document then rerun OCR (available in Acrobat Pro).

  • From the “Protection” menu run “Sanitize Document”.  This will remove all of the document metadata including some of the rendered text that might be causing the error.
  • Re-run the OCR process.

Solution 6: Convert to TIFF files and back, and then re-run OCR (available in Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Pro).

  • Open the PDF document in Acrobat and choose “File > Save As“.
  • In the “Save As” dialog box, choose TIFF (*.tif, *.tiff) from the Save As Type (Windows) or Format (Mac OS) pop-up menu. Specify a location, and then click Save.  Acrobat saves each page of the PDF document as a separate, sequentially numbered TIFF file.
  • Combine the single pages back into a multipage document and re-run the OCR process.

Solution 7: Convert to XPS file format and back, and then re-run OCR.

  • If your computer has the “XPS” virtual printer installed (it comes with many version of MS Office) then print the file using the “Microsoft XPS Document Writer” printer.
    • The XPS printer will ask you to save the file.
    • Convert the saved XPS file to PDF.
    • Re-run the OCR process on the new PDF.

Solution 8: Try running the OCR using a different program.

Adobe Acrobat Training Videos: Searching Fundamentals

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Editor’s note: there is an updated Acrobat Training Guide – Searching Fundamentals post.

Previous video – Text Recognition

Adobe Acrobat Pro is one of the most popular computer software programs on the market for FDO and CJA panel attorneys.  Since so much of the discovery we currently receive in criminal cases is provided in paper or scanned paper format, Acrobat Pro is an excellent tool to help you to better organize and review it.

In our team’s continued efforts to providing resource to CJA panel attorneys and FDO staff, we are creating a series of training videos. Each short video will address a specific feature in a computer software program with our first set focused on Adobe Acrobat Pro XI.

Future videos we are developing will also be posted on this blog.  Make sure to check back in or sign up to subscribe to our blog to get notices of new posts by email.

These videos do not take the place of hands-on training sessions where we can get in depth about a variety of software programs and legal strategies for addressing complex cases, but it hopefully will provide you some basic background information that can help you in your cases.

DeMystifying De-NIST

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With ever rising volumes of discovery data, increasingly legal teams are looking for solutions that can assist them manage the amount of data they need to review.  In circumstances where significant amounts of ESI (Electronically Stored Information) and forensic images of hard drives are involved, one common method is to “De-NIST” discovery data sets.  “De-NIST”ing can be a significant time and money saver and an important part of the discovery review process.

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What is a “Load File”?

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A “load file” is a special kind of file that you may encounter in sets of case related materials.  While there are many different flavors of load files they all serve the same general purpose: they can be used by litigation support software to import (i.e. “load”) information about case related documents. 

Document information may include:

  • Name and locations of image files (typically scanned paper files).
  • Document unitization information (i.e. document breaks).
  • OCR (searchable text) file names and locations.
  • Electronic document (ESI) file names and locations.
  • Extracted metadata information.
  • Other fielded document information.

Load files can play an import role in assisting with the setup of a case document database.  When properly used, they can make the process of importing documents into litigation support applications faster and more efficient.  Some programs that support the importing of load files include evidence review programs (like Summation, Concordance and IPRO) and trial presentation programs (like TrialDirector and Sanction). 

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