PDF vs. PNG for OCR

[jobacle 0]

Is it better to save written notes (from a Remarkable or other device) as PDF files or PNG files when it comes to OCR? I want these to be searchable with minimal lag time once uploaded to Evernote. Thanks!

[gazumped 9,568]

AFAIK PNG files cannot contain multi-page notes while PDF can.  If you save to a searchable PDF before you attach the files,  you should have the shortest delay while the index updates to include new content.  If you have handwritten content,  beware that handwriting in PDFs is not OCR'd.  Those pages should be in PNG or JPG files.

[stocky2605 386]

it also could make sense to export them without background (e. g. lines) to get better OCR results of handwritten notes.

I‘m also a reMarkable user - not sure if it is possible to exclude the background 😇

[PinkElephant 5,182]

Handwriting must be saved in picture files (PNG, JPG or GIF) to be OCRed. Handwriting in pdfs will not be OCRed.

Make sure to select the proper languages in account settings, personal settings. The more languages you select, the more fuzzy the OCR result will be, because in case it can’t exactly read a handwritten word, it will add guesses from all languages.

Make sure the pictures are „clean“ - every element beyond the pure handwriting can disturb the OCR result.