Fast PDF extraction misses image-based text - use Full for scans

TL;DR

Use Full PDF text extraction when accuracy matters, not Fast. Fast mode pulls embedded PDF text and skips the scan pass, so anything rendered as an image - footer addresses, stamps, letterheads - silently drops out of the result.

Steps

1. Use Full PDF text extraction when accuracy matters, not Fast. Fast mode pulls embedded PDF text and skips the scan pass, so anything rendered as an image - footer addresses, stamps, letterheads - silently drops out of the result. Fast is fine for born-digital PDFs where you want speed; for scans or mixed documents, pay for Full or you will chase missing fields that were never extracted.

When to use

You are seeing this: Fast mode pulls embedded PDF text and skips the scan pass, so anything rendered as an image - footer addresses, stamps, letterheads - silently drops out of the result. Use this skill when you run into "Fast PDF extraction misses image-based text - use Full for scans".

When not to use

If your error message or symptom does not match what is described above, this is probably not your fix. Search for your exact error text instead of forcing this one to fit.

Versions

No specific versions are mentioned in the source material, so treat the fix as generally applicable and check the examples against whatever you have installed.

Why this happens

The original report does not dig into a root cause. It documents the symptom and the fix that resolved it.

Source: Klippa OCR integration docs (Automation Anywhere bot readme): PDF text extraction has two modes - Fast tries to extract embedded text from the PDF for speed, Full scans the whole document. Fast can miss details that live in images, e.g. a company address in a document footer.

Verified resolution: Use Full PDF text extraction when accuracy matters, not Fast. Fast mode pulls embedded PDF text and skips the scan pass, so anything rendered as an image - footer addresses, stamps, letterheads - silently drops out of the result. Fast is fine for born-digital PDFs where you want speed; for scans or mixed documents, pay for Full or you will chase missing fields that were never extracted.

Source URL: https://botstore-assets.automationanywhere.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/12131520/klippa-ocr-api-bot-readme-automation-anywhere.pdf