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Search for text in image using macOS Preview's Live Text OCR

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1 answer
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I want to use Apple's new [Live Text](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212630) feature to **search** a PDF for a specific text phrase. The PDF is a large file without any baked-in encoded text. Just many pages of images of scanned text, stored in a PDF. Per this question, Preview evidently cannot use Live Text in a PDF directly: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/440711/force-preview-to-live-text-a-pdf Using File > Export, I can turn the PDF into a multi-page PNG image file. Once it's an image, Live Text is immediately available. I can select and copy/paste OCR'd text out of the image. I can press ⌘A to select all the text on a single page. But how can I **search** the image file for Live Text? In the image file, Preview's Edit > Find... is not available. I can copy/paste a single page's Live Text, and then use Find in a text editor. But I can't copy more than one page of the image at a time. Can I use Find or use Spotlight Search to search Live Text? Please only answers using the new iOS/macOS Live Text feature, not any 3rd party OCR programs.
Asked by pkamb (9620 rep)
Oct 13, 2022, 12:21 AM
Last activity: Mar 18, 2023, 10:02 PM