> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.abbyy.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# OCR activity

> Specify general pre-recognition options and carry out full-text recognition.

The OCR activity is used to specify general pre-recognition options and to carry out full-text recognition. Other activities and skills can use the recognition results obtained by the OCR activity for faster processing.

When recognizing a document, subsequent activities or skills will use the recognition results from the OCR activity if all of the following conditions are met:

* The set of languages in a subsequent activity or skill is the same as the set of languages in the OCR activity or includes the languages of the OCR activity.
* The text type settings (for example, **Printed** or **Handwritten** recognition options) in a subsequent activity or skill are the same as the text type settings in the OCR activity.
* The set of barcode types in a subsequent activity or skill is the same as the set of barcode types in the OCR activity or includes the barcode types of the OCR activity. If no barcode types are enabled in subsequent activities, the barcode type settings in the OCR activity will be ignored.

If any of the above conditions are not met, the text in the documents will be recognized.

The PDF Processing Mode configured in an OCR activity also applies when recognition results are reused by subsequent activities, ensuring consistent processing behavior across the workflow.

## Set up the OCR activity

To set up OCR, follow these steps:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Add the OCR activity">
    Add an **OCR** activity block to your workflow and select it by left-clicking.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Name the activity">
    In the **Actions** pane, enter a name for your activity (if required).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open OCR Settings">
    In the **Actions** pane, click **OCR Settings**. The OCR Settings dialog box opens.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Configure PDF Processing Mode">
    On the **General** tab, under Image Processing, select a **PDF Processing Mode** to control how Vantage processes PDF documents in this activity:

    * **Default** (Recommended) — Uses the embedded PDF text layer when available and supplements with OCR as needed.
    * **Use Text Layer Only** — Extracts text from the embedded PDF text layer; falls back to OCR if no text layer exists.
    * **Use OCR Only** — Ignores any embedded text layer and performs full OCR.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Select recognition languages">
    On the **Languages** tab:

    * In the **Allowed Languages** section, select one or several document recognition languages. During processing, the document language will be automatically chosen from the languages specified during setup. Note that the number of selected languages may affect recognition speed and quality.
    * If the document contains handwritten text, enable the **Handwritten** option in the **Text Appearance** section. See the [supported languages for handwritten text recognition](/vantage/documentation/tenant-admin/technical-specs/languages#handwritten-text).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Enable barcode recognition">
    On the **Barcodes** tab, enable the barcode types that may appear on your documents. The number of selected barcode types can affect recognition speed.

    If you don't need to recognize any barcodes, click the button with the number of selected options in the header of the **Barcode Types** table and click **Deselect all**.

    <Tip>
      The number of selected languages and barcode types may affect recognition speed. Try to select only those languages and barcode types that are required to process your documents.
    </Tip>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Save">
    Click **Save**.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Related topics

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="OCR skill" icon="magnifying-glass-text" href="/vantage/documentation/skill-designer/ocr-skill/ocr-skill">
    Extract text from document images and export results to various formats.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Set up a Process skill" icon="screwdriver-wrench" href="/vantage/documentation/skill-designer/process/set-up">
    Build a Process skill from a preset workflow or from scratch and configure each activity.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Supported recognition languages" icon="language" href="/vantage/documentation/tenant-admin/technical-specs/languages">
    Full list of OCR languages supported across Vantage skills.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Supported barcode types" icon="barcode" href="/vantage/documentation/tenant-admin/technical-specs/barcodes">
    Reference list of every barcode and QR code format Vantage can recognize.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Extract activity" icon="database" href="/vantage/documentation/skill-designer/process/extract-activity">
    Extract field values from documents using a Document skill.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Classify activity" icon="tags" href="/vantage/documentation/skill-designer/process/classify-activity">
    Identify document types and route each document to the correct downstream process.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>