Scanned or digital? How to tell what kind of statement PDF you have

The difference

A digital (text) PDF is generated by the bank’s systems. It contains the actual characters, with their positions on the page. Software can read every date and amount exactly.

A scanned PDF is a photograph of paper, saved in a PDF wrapper. To software it is a grid of pixels. Reading it needs OCR (optical character recognition), which guesses each character from its shape. Even good OCR misreads some characters, such as 1 and 7, or 5 and 6, which matters a great deal in a column of amounts.

How to tell which one you have

1. Try to select a wordOpen the PDF and drag across a single word. If just that word highlights, it is text. If a box selects a whole area, it is an image.
2. Search for a wordPress Ctrl+F (Cmd+F) and search for a word you can see, such as “Balance”. A text PDF finds it; a scan usually doesn’t.
3. Zoom right inText stays sharp at any zoom. A scan becomes blurry or blocky.
4. Check the file’s originIf it came from online banking, it is almost always text. If it came from a scanner, phone camera or a “scan to email” printer, it is an image.

Why the converter needs text today

StatementToCSV reads the exact characters and positions in a text PDF, then proves the result with the running balance. That is why it can say “checked to the penny”. OCR support is planned; until then, scanned statements show “No transactions”.

Getting a digital copy

If you only have paper, download the PDF from online banking instead, or ask the bank for electronic copies. See getting old bank statements.

A scan with “searchable text”

Some scanners add an invisible OCR text layer. The converter may read that layer, but its accuracy depends on the OCR. The balance check will tell you if anything was misread.