Scanning documents into Adobe Acrobat Pro - page keeps getting cut off at the edges

[Special K]

I'm trying to scan some handwritten notes into a pdf document using Adobe Acrobat Pro. The notes are handwritten on a regular sheet of white printer paper. The problem I'm having is that the scanned document is being cut off at the sides, so that not all of my text is showing up in the scanned document.

Is there some setting that sets margins for the scanned document? Will my scanner and/or Adobe Acrobat simply not scan outside some predefined area? Is it not possible to scan the complete area of a regular sheet of paper into a pdf file?

 

[WildHorse]

I don't know about Acrobat Pro, since I've been on Foxit for years, but if you look around in the various settings of your scanning software, try to find a setting to "preview."

In my experience with AbbyyFine and with Microsoft Office scanning software, they both have "preview" settings that let you drag the boundaries of the scanned area. I'd guess your scanning sw probably does too.

 

[Special K]

I just searched on Adobe's help forums and they said it's an issue with the TWAIN driver, not the software.

I tried scanning my document to a pdf using the scanner's bundled software and it did the exact same thing as Acrobat, which would support Adobe's claim.

 

[WildHorse]

Do you get something that looks like that?
well that's your twain driver right there (Windows XP).

If so, go into "Scanner" and check the box to "Show scanner driver dialog before scanning."

Then you can drag the dotted lines in the preview window to scan more of the area. Yours may look a bit different than mine, but still give you same control

 

[Special K]

Alright, I found the problem. In my scanner's bundled software, there is an option in the pdf scanner settings called "Correct Slanted Document". When I unchecked this box, the pdf file of my notes ended up looking correct, and none of the characters were chopped off.

I think the fact that my handwriting wasn't level across the page was throwing off the pdf converter or something. I knew it had to be a problem with the pdf conversion software, because my document looked fine when I did a preview scan before converting it to a pdf. It also looked fine when I scanned my document to a jpg.

FYI, the same setting in Adobe Acrobat Pro is called "deskew", and can be found by going to Document -> Scan to PDF -> Options. Go down to the section labeled "Filtering" and turn Deskew off.

 

[WildHorse]

Originally posted by: Special K
Alright, I found the problem. <cut>

Congratulations!
May you enjoy that good feeling you get when you finally solve a problem you've been fighting.
:thumbsup: