Search for text in image using macOS Preview's Live Text OCR
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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
Last activity: Mar 18, 2023, 10:02 PM