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PDF: The Portable Document Format

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== PDF Types ==Consider the two main distinctions in PDF file types, scanned versus native.  A native PDF file is superior to a scanned PDF file in capabilities, flexibility, and efficiency.  This is due to a distinction of true text in the PDF from a PDF that is only images of text.PDF Types:* Native* Scanned=== Native PDF ===A native PDF file will contain literal text as part of the structure, including information about the text.  This is not to say that there are no images.  It is to stay that the text itself is actual text and not just part of an image.  A native PDF has an internal structure that can be read and interpreted.  Only a native PDF can utilize all of the capabilities that the format lends to the reader software.=== Scanned PDF ===PDF files created by scanning hard-copy documents containing primarily text do not have the same structure as a PDF file of the same document created directly. The scanned document internally contains a picture of the document, with no information about the text. As far as a user can see it is just another PDF file, with a name and extension indistinguishable from any other; a good scan may look exactly the same as a native PDF file, although a visually poor-quality file, often with skewed pages, gives away its nature. However, the file size will be different, and it will not be possible to search for text. For a scan of adequate quality it is possible with suitable software to regenerate the text of the document with Optical character recognition (OCR), and embed it in the file so as to make it searchable, subject to the accuracy of the OCR.
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