PDFs have become the standard file format for all industries, and it’s no secret why: PDFs are a secure format for sending and receiving documents and images. However, that doesn’t mean these files aren’t without their slight disadvantages. Today, we’ll look at 6 of the most common PDF Problems issues people have with PDFs and what you can do to overcome them.
6 Effective Ways to PDF Problems and Their Solutions
Apply These 6 Secret Techniques To Improve Pdf related problems with easy solutions.
Problem 1: Content “Lock Down”
Lock Down in PDFs refers to the non-copy-paste-ability of the file’s contents. This problem stems from scanning a document and saving it as a PDF file. What users need to be aware of is that while a scanned document can be 100% text, a scanner only takes an image of everything. The final product is multiple, large-sized pictures of words.
Solution: Use an OCR reader
OCR (optical character recognition) readers, such as Adobe Acrobat Pro DC (desktop software) or i2OCR (browser app), are able to assess image files and identify letters and words from JPG, PNG, and other image file formats. The end result is a block of copy-paste-able text that you can save directly as a PDF document.
Problem 2: Not Very Mobile-Friendly
PDFs have the advantage of being shareable across platforms while retaining their format. Basically, a mobile user can read a document published by a PC user in its natural format. However, since mobile devices have smaller screens, users will have to zoom in and out to read the file’s contents and scroll between columns.
Solution: Recreate the PDF with a single-column format
Unfortunately, there’s no real way to optimize a PDF for mobile users if you’re working on a computer. However, you can reduce the pain associated with navigating through wide documents by recreating the PDF in a single-column format. This is done via a word processing app like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or the LibreOffice Suite.
Problem 3: Non-Editable
Finding typos or grammatical errors in PDFs are a major source of frustration for businesses. PDFs are virtually non-editable, meaning that you’ll have to go back to the source file using a word processor to revise the content.
Solution: Use a PDF editor app
A desktop (Adobe Acrobat) or free online (PDFChef) PDF editor comes with a wide range of PDF tools that include whiting-out text and fields and replacing them. Some of the handiest online PDF editors come with basic tools like merging, splitting, and digitally signing your files. PDFChef also includes more advanced features like rotating pages, deleting or adding pages, and converting document and image formats to and from PDF.
Please note that aligning new text with the existing text can be an issue, as is matching the font and text size, so the final product may not appear as crisp as you’d like. This should only be used as a last resort if you don’t have access to the source file.
Problem 4: Version Control
After modifying and publishing a new PDF file version, there’s no way to ensure that the previous version containing typos and other errors won’t fall into the hands of business partners or customers. While you can delete or digitally archive older PDF file versions and publish a newer version on your website, there’s no saying what users will do with the old files.
Solution: Mandate deletions of old PDF files
This solution sounds primitive, but you’d be surprised by how well it works. This is especially true for businesses that exclusively share PDFs with partners and suppliers. The fewer people that receive a PDF, the easier it is to manage remotely. That said, this isn’t a foolproof solution as non-employee recipients of a file may not follow instructions.
Problem 5: SEO
Search engines can crawl, rank, and index PDF files, but they use a different process from websites to do so. This can make it hard for companies to publish easily-searchable product manuals and marketing materials unless visitors access the company’s website directly.
Solution: 6 Steps to Make PDFs More SEO-Friendly
1. Convert the file to a PDF (using Acrobat, a word processor, or an online PDF converter like PDFChef)
2. Replace spaces in the title with dashes or underscores
3. Include keywords in the PDF’s title
4. Use OCR software (Acrobat Pro DC or i2OCR) to make a searchable text
5. Use alternative images to interpret visuals
6. Include links to your website in the PDF file and vice versa
Problem 6: Large File Size
Another problem that both PC and mobile users encounter is downloading large PDFs. Even 2- or 3-page PDFs can take up more than 25MB of space, which can be annoying for those with unbearably slow internet connections. While downloading the PDF could be a better solution for accessing the file, later on, people gravitate more towards opening the file directly in their browser.
Solution: Use a PDF editor to compress the file
Using Adobe Acrobat or online2pdf, you can compress a PDF to less than half its original size without sacrificing too much on text and image quality. Just note that the more pages there are in a PDF file, the harder it will be to compress the file to the size most readers want (smaller than 10MB).
