[blindLaw] Fastest PDF OCR Software

[Matney, Angela R.]

I typically just save the file as a Word document. The performance is generally good enough for review purposes. If I am going to edit something, I ask my executive assistant (EA) or our business center to make a clean Word copy that's optimized for editing. 

I should also add that if I have documents containing images, diagrams, or similar material, I ask my EA or the business center to provide descriptions of these materials. My EA and I have gotten pretty good at this process over the years, and I generally have her supervise what the business center does. I recognize that this approach may not work in all environments and it may not be feasible when large numbers of PDFs are involved.

Angela R. Matney, CIPP/US (Angie)
Counsel
D: +1 202-414-9343
Preferred pronouns: she/her
amatney at reedsmith.com

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1301 K Street, NW, Suite 1000
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-----Original Message-----
From: Syed Rizvi <syedrizvinfb at gmail.com> 
Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2025 9:32 AM
To: Matney, Angela R. <AMatney at reedsmith.com>
Cc: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [blindLaw] Fastest PDF OCR Software

External E-Mail - FROM Syed Rizvi <syedrizvinfb at gmail.com>

Thanks, Angie! Any tips with OCR or do you just use the convert function in the drop down menu?
Sent from my iPhone.

> On Oct 14, 2025, at 7:05 AM, Matney, Angela R. <AMatney at reedsmith.com> wrote:
> 
> I've had the best luck with Adobe, but I have yet to identify a way to, say, have it process a folder of PDFs at one time. I worked on a procedure for doing this with my IT, but it ended up being somewhat complicated, and these days, I don't often have to process hundreds of PDFs at a time (as I have had to do previously).
> 
> The output I get from Adobe is generally quite accurate, though it doesn't deal well with handwriting or similar issues. It would be interesting to know if there are any genAI tools that include appropriate restrictions (outputs not used to train models, for example) that might do a better job with handwriting and other issues.
> 
> I'm interested to know about solutions others have used.
> 
> Angie
> 
> 
> 
> Angela R. Matney, CIPP/US (Angie)
> Counsel
> D: +1 202-414-9343
> Preferred pronouns: she/her
> amatney at reedsmith.com
> 
> Bio|vCard|E-Mail|ReedSmith.com
> 
> 1301 K Street, NW, Suite 1000
> Washington, DC 20005
> 
> ReedSmith
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Syed Rizvi via BlindLaw
> Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2025 12:21 AM
> To: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Syed Rizvi <syedrizvinfb at gmail.com>
> Subject: [blindLaw] Fastest PDF OCR Software
> 
> External E-Mail - FROM BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org>
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Any recs for an OCR software that is faster than JAWS OCR. I have to deal with numerous PDFs very quickly at times and need something fast and accurate.
> 
> Thanks!
> Syed
> 
> Sent from my iPhone.
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