How to Create PDFs from Scanner

This article will tell you how to create PDFs from scanner with Foxit PDF Editor.

Foxit PDF Editor allows you to create a PDF directly from a paper document using your scanner. You can scan a document to PDF directly with custom settings or by using preset preferences that you configured before.

See also the tutorial on Scan Documents into PDF.

Scan with custom settings

To scan a document to PDF with custom settings, please follow as below:

1.     Choose File > Create > From Scanner > the From Scanner button > the Scan command, or choose Convert > From Scanner > Scan, or choose Home > the Scan button > the Scan command.

2.     Select a scanner and related options in the Scan dialog box.

Note: You must have the manufacturer’s scanning software installed on your computer.

Advanced Options: clicks to open the Scanner Options dialog box. (Available only after you select a scanner.)

Transfer Mechanism: Native mode transfers data by default in your scanner. Buffered memory mode scans in resolutions of over 600DPI.

Configure scanner:

Configure scanner using scanner interface: Checks this option and directly use the scanner interface to scan. Then the following items (i.e. Source, Color Mode, Paper Size and Resolution) will not be available and the settings in the scanner interface will not be able to saved as a preset.

Prompt to scan more pages: selects this option, a dialog box will pop up to ask you whether to scan more pages whenever the scanning completes. If the option is unselected, for single-sided printing, you’ll not be prompted once the scanning completes.  

Sides: Specify single or double-sided scanning. If you select Both Sides but the settings of the scanner are for only one side, the scanner setting overrides the Foxit settings.

Source: select the input source for scanning, including Auto Detect, Feeder, and Flatbed. If you select Auto Detect, Foxit PDF Editor will detect the input source for scanning automatically. If documents are placed in both feeder and flatbed, both of them will be scanned, but the one in feeder will be scanned first by default.

Color Mode (Windows only): selects a basic color mode (Black and White, Grayscale, Color or Auto Detect) supported by your scanner.

Paper Size (Windows only): selects a paper size.

Resolution (Windows only): selects a resolution supported by your scanner.

Output:

New PDF Document: Output the scanning results as a new PDF document.

Append: Append the scanning results to an existing PDF file. After selecting this option, click Browse to find and select an existing PDF file from your local disk.

Save Multiple Files: Save the scanning results as multiple PDF documents. Click the Options button to spcify the number of pages for each PDF document, the file name prefix, and whether to create a portfolio where all scanning results will be saved.

Optimize Scanned PDF:

Reduce size and optimize: checks this item and clicks Options to customize compression and filtering. The Optimization Options dialog box for image settings controls how scanned images are compressed for the PDF. Default settings are suitable for a wide range of document pages, but you may want to customize settings for higher quality images and smaller file sizes.

Color/Gray settings: when scanning color or gray pages, select JPEG, JPEG2000(Lossless) or JPEG2000(Lossy) toapply JPEG compression to the entire gray or RGB input page. Select High-Compression to apply image compression in high-quality with small size (Available in Foxit PDF Editor ProOnly).

Low/High Quality: drags the slider to set the balance point between file size and quality.

Monochrome: when scanning black-and-white or monotone images, select one of the following:

●     JBIG 2(Lossless)/ JBIG2(Lossy): applyan image compression standard for bi-level images which is suitable for lossless or lossy compression.

●     CCITT Group 4: applies CCITT Group 4 compression to black-and-white input page images.

●     High-Compression: applies to high-quality with small size compression. (Available in Foxit PDF Editor ProOnly)

Deskew: chooses On to automatically rotate any page so that the text is vertically aligned, which is of great use for cleaning up scanned PDFs.

Remove blank pages:

Removes the blank pages from the scanned PDF after scanning.

Make Searchable(run OCR): checks this item and clicks Options to run OCR in scanned PDFs. See also the instructions on “Recognize Text”.

Save as Preset: saves the current scanning settings as a preset with which you can quickly start a scan next time. In the pop-up Save Preset dialog box, rename the preset as needed and click Save.

3.     Click Scan. If you checked Configure scanner using scanner interface previously, specify the scan settings as needed and then scan the document based on your scanner’s settings.

4.     A dialog box pops up, asking you whether to scan more pages, or to scan the reverse sides if you chose both sides in the Sides option previously. Choose a desired option.

5.      When the scanning is complete, the new scanned PDF or the existing PDF with the scanned pages appended at the end will automatically be opened, with a new tab named “POST-SCAN” on the ribbon.

The Post-Scan Options tab:

Optimize Scanned PDF: optimizes the scanned PDF for a smaller size and better display effect. See also the instructions on “Scan with custom settings”.

OCR Current File: runs OCR in the current scanned PDF after saving the document. See also the instructions on OCR.

Page Organize: navigates to the Organize tab where you can apply these commands on the PDF pages.

Grayscale/ Black & White: adjusts the color mode of the scanned PDF. You can change the mode from Color to Grayscale/ Black & White, or from Grayscale to Black & White; but not the reverse.

Edit Document Information: modifies the scanned document information including Author, Title and File name.

Close: closes the Post-Scan Options tab.

6.     Choose File > Save, and specify a name and location for the scanned PDF file.

Scan with a Configured Preset (Windows)

You can configure scan parameters or options and save as presets. When you are ready to scan you can choose one of them with just one click. To scan a paper document to PDF using a configured preset, from File > Create > From Scanner > the From Scanner button, or Convert > From Scanner, or Home > Scan, select a preset to scan documents. 

Configure presets

To configure a new preset, please do the following:

1.     Choose File > Create > From Scanner > the From Scanner button, or choose Convert > From Scanner, or choose Home > the Scan button > the Scan command.

2.      Select a scanner and then complete the settings (See also the instructions on “Scan with custom settings”).

3.     Click Save as Preset to save the preset. Or click Scan to start a scan with the preset.

To modify presets, please do the following:

1.     Choose File > Create > From Scanner > the From Scanner button > the Manage presets command, or choose Convert > From Scanner > Manage presets, or choose Home > Scan >  Manage presets .

2.     Edit, delete and move the existing presets in the Manage Scan Presets dialog box. You can also create a preset by clicking Create. 

For more details, check out our tutorial video here.