Strange behavior with searchable PDF

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Strange behavior with searchable PDF Sat Oct 26, 2019 5:54 pm • by sawbones
I have a pdf invoice that I download from Mail to Downloads folder in Finder. When I open the invoice in PDF Expert, I can swipe and copy text, which I can paste and recognize elsewhere. However, if I paste into Hazel and run Preview on that document, it comes up red. Since I am direct copy and pasting, I don't suspect a misspelling, but I have tried reducing letters, all the way down to one, and it doesn't work.

If I OCR in FineReader PRO, Hazel recognizes all the same text.

Am I missing something?

Thanks
sawbones
 
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Re: Strange behavior with searchable PDF Mon Oct 28, 2019 10:24 am • by Mr_Noodle
How about opening the file in Preview (the app, not Hazel)? Do you get the same text as PDFExpert if you copy and paste it?
Mr_Noodle
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Re: Strange behavior with searchable PDF Tue Oct 29, 2019 5:52 pm • by sawbones
Thank you for the suggestion.

In Preview, the text is NOT selectable, I cannot copy and paste it.

So its an issue with the PDF, I am guessing, and PDF Expert overcomes it somehow, but unless readable in Preview, I am guessing Hazel cannot read it either.
sawbones
 
Posts: 21
Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2013 9:29 pm

Re: Strange behavior with searchable PDF Wed Oct 30, 2019 9:57 am • by Mr_Noodle
I think some people have had luck using a program like pdf2text in a script to convert the PDF file. Search around.
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