Searchable PDF for OfficeJet Pro 8020

[GreenOakSteve]

The printer was bought for our company office to replace an aged OfficeJet 6600 that was worn out.
One of the uses of our office scanner is to scan in documents then extract text from them to use in other documents - usually for tax declarations.
The documentation says that it can scan to enhanced or searchable PDF which would permit this but unfortunately the HP Smart app, which is gradually becoming usable, does not give this option nor any other form of OCR. HP successfully hid their old reliable software by not providing an install disc and only providing instructions on installing HP Smart (which still isn't smart at all).

I have been trying to get this thing working since I got it and I believe it is now out of warranty. The only reason it hasn't been replaced by a printer that will do what it says on the box is I have to wait till it breaks or the asset has no book value.

It was suggested that I install the full software to my main PC, which I eventually managed to do - it was a terrible experience of programs stopping randomly and having to restart repeatedly and having fun like the install trying to open Internet Explorer windows in Edge  - and still no searchable PDF so pretty much a waste of another 3 hours of my life.
My guess is that the people who have managed to get this to work had the OCR drivers installed from other software and I, possibly stupidly, have uninstalled the OfficeJet 6600 software that would happily scan to searchable PDF.

Does anyone know how to get working software from HP to enable searchable PDFs through this printer-scanner?

[banhien]

@GreenOakSteve 

The specs of your printer is

        https://support.hp.com/au-en/document/c06317496#AbT16

It does not have OCR software nor searchable for PDF files. Many printers have OCR software, it is not a free product but it is included on the price of the printer. With OCR software, you can

You may have to pay to use

           https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/readiris/Readiris14ProHPWin.zip

Regards.

[GreenOakSteve]

Hi Banhein,

Thanks but sadly that will not install on the 8020.

The current specs for the 8020 say it does not have searchable PDF, yes, but the specs when I purchased it said it did have searchable PDF. It was purchased as a pro product which at the time meant it should have come with full capability and there are many examples on YouTube and similar showing the capability on an OfficeJet Pro 8020.