Issue: Cannot find numbers in ctrl/cmd+F search (Numbers displayed correctly, but not their code)

edited 24 days ago
Hello,

for some reason I cannot find numbers in some of my pdf-documents when I search for them. However, this only happens in Zotero. It is not the case for the same document in another viewer.

So for example when I look for the number "2025" nothing shows up, even when it is clearly visible in the text. Seems to be an underlying code problem in the pdf/text that for some reason shows up in Zotero.

And when I copy the number »2025« from a document in pdf, it shows as »"$"%« when I paste it.
Or when I copy »Article 1, 5, 28, 29« it shows as »Article !, %, "*, "&« when I paste it.

Essentially this means when I want to search for the year 2025 in the document I have to search for this cryptic code "$"%.

Why would this happen?
Is there a solution to this?
  • bump

    My solution was to OCR it.. So basically treat as if it would be just a scan. Still, that should not be necessary.
    Any other way to solve this problem?
  • Likely similar problem as here:
    https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/487800/#Comment_487800

    Do you see the same problem when you open the PDF file in Firefox?
    In that case, you will need to repair the OCR in the PDF indeed.
  • Thank you forlinking, yes I have the same problem in Firefox.
    But as the other discussion said, not in Preview (that pdf programm for Mac).

    So basically I will continued what I did anyways: OCR.

    Interestingly that text/code problem is only for parts of the book that i separated in extra-pdfs. That pdf of the whole book is readable in Zotero.

    All the best, and thanks again!
  • edited 3 days ago
    As already explained in the linked thread, Apple's Preview application performs a kind of on-the-fly OCR, so you will be able to find text in PDFs without any text layer, or even JPEG and other images. Zotero, Firefox, and most other PDF viewers do not have that functionality, so comparing with Preview will not be very informative.
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