Readiris is OCR and PDF software for Windows that converts scanned pages into editable documents and provides tools for changing existing PDFs. It handles both page images and documents that already contain digital text. Essential covers PDF editing, conversion and form filling, while Elite adds document automation, advanced forms and security tools.
How Readiris recognizes text
A scanned page contains pixels rather than words that a word processor can edit. Readiris analyzes the page and divides it into regions for text, pictures, tables and barcodes. These regions determine how each part will be converted: a photograph can stay an image while a nearby table becomes spreadsheet content.
You can inspect the recognition zones, move their boundaries, create a missing zone or change its type. Setting a text-bearing logo to an image region, for example, keeps it together as a graphic. The OCR language controls accept up to three languages within one document.
Editing text in single-page view
Readiris also edits text at word, sentence and paragraph level in its single-page view. Font, size, color and alignment controls change its appearance. Automatic reflow rearranges edited text within its paragraph frame; manual reflow leaves line breaks under your control. The text editor works with left-to-right languages, and vertical text is unsupported.
Image corrections in Elite
Elite adds corrections for scanned images before conversion. Deskew straightens tilted lines, brightness and contrast controls adjust the image, and separate tools remove dark borders and punch-hole marks. Cropping selects the part of a page to retain, while perspective correction addresses a page photographed at an angle.
Searchable PDF, Word and Excel output
The output settings determine how much of the page layout survives conversion. Readiris can create a searchable PDF with the original page image visible and recognized text behind it. Elite adds compressed PDF output and PDF/A for archival documents, with a quality control that balances image detail against file size.
Word output offers a different choice. The Exact setting places text in frames over the page image to favor the original appearance. Flowing uses body text and columns, making the result more suitable for continued editing. Another option discards the original layout and writes the recognized content in reading order.
For Excel, Readiris can reconstruct the source document, retain tables with surrounding text, or export tables alone. PowerPoint, image, HTML and EPUB outputs are also available.
Page assembly
Readiris can combine documents already open in its workspace, placing one before or after another. Files can also be inserted after a selected page. Thumbnail and multipage views provide page selection, and dragging thumbnails changes their order.
A split moves the selected page and following pages into a new document. Extraction copies selected pages into another document while leaving them in the original. PDF bookmarks provide named entry points to pages in the assembled file.
PDF review
Notes, highlights, underlines and other markups attach review information to a page. Comments can carry replies with a name and timestamp. Stamps can use preset labels or custom text, while drawing tools provide shapes and arrows with adjustable colors and borders. Annotations are retained when exporting to PDF.
Elite adds redaction that permanently removes selected text when the document is saved. Its PDF protection controls set opening and editing passwords and specify permitted printing, copying and changes. For signatures, Readiris distinguishes an image placed on the page from a digital signature created with a Windows-recognized certificate. Certificate signatures require PDF output.
PDF forms
Readiris fills digital PDF forms, and Elite’s Form Designer creates or modifies their interactive fields. These include text boxes, checkboxes, radio buttons, lists and signature fields. Field properties control names, tooltips, default values and whether an entry is required or read-only.
Form data can be exported separately in XML, FDF, XFDF or XFA format and loaded back into a form. Flattening saves a version whose fields are no longer interactive. Readiris does not execute embedded form scripts, so script-driven calculations and automatic field population will not run.
Scan batches
Elite’s automatic separation rules turn an imported or scanned stack into individual documents. A rule can start a new document after a fixed page count, at a blank page, or when a barcode is found. Separator pages can be removed from the resulting documents.
Smart Zones restrict recognition to a rectangle containing text or a barcode. A separation rule can respond to fixed or changing content in that area; the pages need a consistent size so the rectangle stays in the correct position. Automatic naming combines document names, dates, times, counters and fixed text, with a preview of the resulting name before applying the structure.
