Scanning Documents for the Office — DPI & OCR Tips
Capture settings that reduce file size and improve OCR before PDF to Word.
Published May 27, 2025 · 1 min read
Scanning is not dead — receipts, signed forms, and legacy paper still land on your desk. Quality at capture time saves hours of OCR cleanup.
Scanner settings
- 300 DPI for text documents; 200 DPI acceptable for email-only archives
- Grayscale for text — smaller files than colour
- Deskew and blank-page detection if your app supports it
After scanning
Run compression, then PDF to Word if you need editable text. Expect page-image Word output for pure scans — that is normal.
Sources & references
Primary references used when researching and fact-checking this guide. See our editorial methodology.
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Adobe PDF Reference — encryption
— Adobe
PDF password protection and encryption standards (ISO 32000). -
Ghostscript documentation — PDF settings
— Artifex Software
Compression level behavior and PDF output settings.