THE WORKFLOW
How to clean up a scanned PDF
- Open Scan cleanup and choose the PDF and page range.
- Set a small deskew angle, color mode, contrast and brightness. Enable landscape-to-portrait rotation or nearly-blank-page removal only if suitable for the source.
- Run Clean scanned PDF, then compare the output page count and detail with the original.
PRACTICAL EXAMPLES
Choose the workflow for your document
Straighten a slightly tilted PDF scan
Start with a small positive or negative deskew angle and inspect the text baseline. A whole page turned sideways needs a quarter-turn rotation rather than a tiny skew correction.
Prepare a faint scan for OCR
Adjust contrast and brightness while watching thin strokes and punctuation. Excessive cleanup can erase detail, so test a small page selection before recognizing the whole document.
BEFORE YOU SHARE
What to check in the result
Cleanup renders pages as images and flattens selectable text, links, forms and accessibility structure. Deskew is controlled by an angle you enter, from -5 to 5 degrees. Nearly blank detection can mistake a faint but important page for an empty one, so review the complete output.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Questions about this PDF task
Does cleanup automatically recognize text?
No. Use OCR searchable PDF after cleaning if you need recognized text or a searchable output.
Can blank-page removal delete useful content?
Yes. Faint writing or sparse marks can be mistaken for an almost empty page. Compare page counts and review removed content before sharing.
Can I keep the original scan colors?
Yes. The color-mode control offers Keep color, Grayscale and Black and white.