Extract OCR from PDF
Infoveave Data Automation — Document Parsing
Scanned PDF in. Machine-readable, structured data out. Driven by OCR.
Millions of business documents exist only as scanned images — paper invoices photographed and emailed, historical records digitized from archives, forms filled out by hand and scanned for compliance. Without OCR automation, these documents require manual transcription — which is slow, expensive, and error-prone. Extract OCR from PDF applies optical character recognition to scanned and image-based PDFs, converting visual text into structured data directly inside the workflow pipeline.
What Extract OCR from PDF does
Apply optical character recognition (OCR) to extract text and tabular data from scanned or image-based PDFs inside your Infoveave workflow. Convert scanned invoices, forms, and records into actionable structured data without manual transcription.
When to use Extract OCR from PDF
- You receive scanned PDFs from physical documents — paper invoices, signed contracts, or historical forms — that do not have embedded text data
- Your PDF files contain image layers rather than selectable text (you cannot click and select text in Acrobat Reader)
- You need to digitize a backlog of scanned documents into a searchable, structured data format
- OCR is a step in your document management pipeline before classification, data validation, or database loading
When to avoid it
- Your PDFs are digitally generated and contain selectable text — use Extract Text from PDF instead, which is faster and more accurate for machine-readable documents
- Your PDFs only need to be split into individual pages — use Split PDF
- Your documents contain barcodes to decode — use Read Barcode
Where it fits in your Infoveave automation
Extract OCR from PDF is one step inside a multi-step Infoveave workflow. Chain it with other activities — no code, no manual hand-offs.
Build this workflow visually in Infoveave Data Automation — drag, connect, and schedule with no infrastructure setup.
How teams use Extract OCR from PDF
Real scenarios where this transformation saves hours of manual work.
Medical Form Digitization
Patient intake forms returned as scanned PDFs are processed by Extract OCR from PDF. The activity reads handwritten and typed fields — name, DOB, medications — converting each form into a structured record that populates the EHR system for the intake staff without manual re-entry.
Historical Invoice Archive Processing
Thousands of scanned invoices from a legacy filing cabinet are being migrated to a digital AP system. Extract OCR from PDF processes each invoice in bulk, extracting vendor, amount, and date fields that are loaded into the accounts payable database.
Signed Contract Digitization
Signed contracts returned by clients as scanned PDFs need to be searchable and have key fields extracted for the contract management system. OCR extraction captures effective dates, party names, and clause references from each scanned agreement.
See Extract OCR from PDF in action
Input data (left) is transformed using the configuration below. The output table (right) is ready for dashboards or downstream steps.
12Input Data
| Scanned PDF content (visual) |
|---|
| [Page 1 image] INVOICE - Vendor: Acme Co - Total: $1,250 |
| [Page 2 image] Terms and conditions text... |
Output Data
| Page | ExtractedText | StructuredField | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | INVOICE - Vendor: Acme Co - Total: $1,250 | Vendor | Acme Co |
| 1 | INVOICE - Vendor: Acme Co - Total: $1,250 | Total | 1250.00 |
Configuration
Key fields to configure in the Infoveave workflow builder. Full reference available in the documentation.
Start Page
The page number from which OCR processing begins. Use page 1 to process from the beginning, or specify a higher page number to skip cover pages or sections that do not contain relevant data.
End Page
The last page to process with OCR. Specify -1 or leave blank to process all pages to the end of the document. Limiting the page range reduces processing time for large documents where only specific pages contain data.
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know about Extract OCR from PDF in Infoveave.
Also in Document Parsing — and what runs before & after
Transformations in the same family as Extract OCR from PDF, often chained together in the same Infoveave workflow.
Part of Infoveave Data Automation
80+ transformations. Zero manual steps.
Extract OCR from PDF is one of over 80 transformation activities available inside Infoveave workflows. Chain transformations together — no code, no exports, no waiting for IT.
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