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3

I need to upload a scanned image as a PDF document.

After scanning the document, I have a .jpeg with small text that I want to edit before converting to PDF for the upload.

I have never done this before so I'm really stuck. How can I do this?

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2  
Use GIMP to remove the unwanted text, it's an Image now just cover it up with a white rectangle. – Uri Herrera Dec 5 '12 at 20:39
I just don't want to erase it I want to replace it with just two words – Mysterio Dec 5 '12 at 20:58
Put a white rectangle over what you don't want and then put text using the text tool. – Uri Herrera Dec 5 '12 at 21:01
1  
@Mysterio can it wait 9 hours? If yes, email me the document and I'll do it, it's easy. If not, see the OCR answer below & good luck. – Tom Brossman Dec 5 '12 at 23:13
3  
IF this involves an admissions board, is it wise to edit text and try to make it appear authentic? Depending on the situation this could be illegal. – ObsessiveSSOℲ Dec 5 '12 at 23:46
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4 Answers

up vote 23 down vote accepted
+50

To make text in a .jpeg editable you need Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. I use ocrfeeder.

sudo apt-get install ocrfeeder

To open an image file click on the 'plus' (+) sign.
enter image description here After you have opened the image, click on the next icon to the right to run OCR.
enter image description here
After is has finished OCR'ing the image, you can select the text you want on the left, and copy it out on the right.
enter image description here

The easiest way to get the text out is to just copy it over to LibreOffice. With a little editing, my copy looks very similar.

enter image description here

After you make the required changes you can export them as .pdf by clicking 'export as pdf' from the LibreOffice toobar. enter image description here

Ultimately its best to scan to .pdf if you can. If you can't this works very well.

NOTE: OCR is not 100% accurate, you may have to correct errors, and the more formatting your document has, the harder it will be.

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3  
+1, This is definitely gives the best results. The other methods involving manipulation of the JPEG images can look quite bad if the text is aliased, OCR avoids this problem. – Tom Brossman Dec 5 '12 at 23:04
4  
+1 This should be accepted. – TimWolla Dec 8 '12 at 20:56
@TimWolla It depends if the JPG is graphics or text based. As I read the question, the JPG was a graphic with some text. – psny18 Jan 1 at 18:36
up vote 10 down vote

You can't edit text in a JPG, but you remove the text and add new text.

For images, try gimp (open source alternative to Photoshop). Open the image with gimp, then use the eraser tool to erase the old text. Then use the text tool to add new text.

Or, use inkscape, which is a vector graphics program (similar to Adobe Illustrator). Create a new SVG file and paste in your JPG. Then, cover up the old text with a new text box.

I would start with gimp but for your image maybe inkscape works better. You can install either code from the software center, or use these lines in a terminal

sudo apt-get install gimp

sudo apt-get install inkscape
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up vote 6 down vote

We can also edit text on top of an image with Libre Office from where we can also easily export this files as PDF.

  • Open your document to insert the image with Insert -> Picture -> From File....

    enter image description here

  • Then choose "Wrap -> In Background" from the right click context menu on the picture you just inserted.

  • Write any text above the image (but we will have to place it with newlines, and spaces or tabstops). Any preexisting text needs to be overwritten. In the example below I have done this by choosing a black background and a white font colour.

    enter image description here

  • Finally we can do "File -> Export as PDF...".

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up vote 0 down vote

You cannot directly edit text in an image file. You can edit the image file using a program such as gimp and place new text on top of old but that's it. Sorry.

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