What is the difference between the searchable text and photocopy version of each scanned document?
When a document is scanned, first an image of the page is stored, and second the text on the page is ‘read’ by the computer – a process called OCR (Optical Character Recognition). The text version is used when the document is searched or edited. You can paste the text into Microsoft Word. The scanned image of the page is needed as an original for IRS or legal use. When it is printed, it will look just like the original, with ink marks, handwriting, and textures.
