Annotating pdf in Zotero not working

llenitaap
I had been underlining, highlighting, and writing on pdf files inside Zotero just fine until just now. I imported a new pdf, and the same steps that worked before are not working with this particular file. I can't do any of the above annotating on it. Any suggestions?
  • dstillman
    What does "not working" mean? What exactly is happening?

    Can you provide a Report ID?
  • llenitaap
    I don't think a Report ID was generated. What I mean is that, when I clicked on both the highlighting and underlining functions inside of Zotero with the pdf open, and put my stylus on the pdf where I wanted to highlight and then underline, nothing happened. It would not respond by highlighting anything. I did subsequently notice that the drawing tool, however, did work on that page. I noticed a pattern after sending my previous message: when the pdf was made out of jpgs, the above happens. When the pdf was made from document files, it does not happen. Should I resign myself to not being able to highlight/underline when my pdf was made from a jpg?
  • dstillman
    (You can always provide a Report ID. I linked to instructions.)

    Like any standard PDF reader, Zotero can only highlight or underline text if there's a text layer — it's no different from selecting/copying text. If the PDF is just made of images, it would have to be OCRed to create a text layer first.
  • llenitaap
    I so appreciate all this helpful information!
    I am not familiar with OCRing. Is there a software that can do that?
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