Scan to InDesign, for pages that have no text to copy

What you get

• Editable text, tables and columns laid out as on the page, one InDesign page per scanned page.
• Tables as tables, and form fields beside their labels.
• Stamps and seals stay pictures, each with a small note under it giving the words read off it, so a translator can work with them.
• Pages scanned sideways or upside down are turned upright first.
• PDFs and photos alike: PNG, JPG, TIFF and WebP are read the same way as a scanned PDF.

From the page to the InDesign file

1. Each page is checked: if it stands sideways or upside down, it is turned upright, and the stored scan is turned with it, so everything after reads the same page.
2. A model writes the page as Word, with its text, tables, columns and marks, and the result is laid out and compared with the scan. What does not match goes back for another round.
3. You get the Word copy. Check it here if you want, since a misread number is quickest to fix in Word.
4. The InDesign file is made from that Word copy when you ask for it, the same way as from any other Word file. It goes through the same checks: InDesign's schema, every word kept, one segment for each paragraph.

What we have opened in InDesign

The twelve sample documents on our scan examples page, each as a Word copy and as a translation: certificates, an apostille, a power of attorney, a CMR note, a QR bill, a 1913 diploma. All 24 pass the schema, keep every word and read as one segment for each paragraph.

We opened them in InDesign 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025 and 2026 on Windows and 2026 on a Mac. Two older samples name a font you would install or replace with Type > Find Font: today a scan's copy sets text only in fonts every reader has or the file carries.

That is a small set of one-page documents, so treat it as what it is, and try a long scanned report before you promise a project on it.

Where this makes sense

A certificate, a form, an old brochure whose sources are gone: pages you would otherwise redraw from a picture. Scan examples on this site show real pages next to their results, and they are worth a look before you decide.

What needs a person

A model is good at print and much less good at cursive handwriting, and when it misreads handwriting nothing flags the mistake: our checker passes a misread with no finding. It also misses swaps such as left and right in Chinese handwritten remarks.

Treat handwritten names and numbers as unread until someone compares them with the scan, above all before you promise a scan as final to a client. A blurred or covered field is cropped as a picture rather than guessed.

Why go through Word

You can correct a misread number in the Word copy with no InDesign at all, and a translator can translate it, before anyone sets it. Word also keeps the fonts honest: a scan's copy is set only in fonts every reader has, or fonts the file carries, so a page does not run over on another machine.

Quality of the pictures

Pictures on a scanned page come from the scan, so they are only as sharp as it is. If you have the originals, relink them in InDesign before print.

What the InDesign file cannot take yet

A scan written vertically, such as a Japanese or Chinese manuscript, stays vertical in the Word copy, and InDesign's file is refused for now because we do not yet set whole vertical sections. You still get the Word files, and the reason on screen.