OCR

How to Prepare Scanned PDFs for Better OCR

Improve OCR accuracy for scans: resolution, contrast, skew, and compression settings that matter.

Prahasith Reddy avatar
Prahasith Reddy
Founder & Engineer, Document Renamer

Builder focused on AI-powered developer tools and workflow automation. Loves clean filenames and clean APIs.

AI relies on good input. For scans, small tweaks to resolution and contrast can dramatically improve OCR results and filename suggestions.

Scan settings

  • Use 300 DPI or higher; 600 DPI for small text
  • Prefer grayscale over color unless color encodes meaning
  • Avoid heavy JPEG compression; use lossless where possible

Preprocessing

  • Deskew and crop margins
  • Increase contrast and remove background noise
  • Ensure pages are in correct order before OCR
How to Prepare Scanned PDFs for Better OCR | AI Document Renamer | AI Document Renamer