How to Work with PDFs with Raster + OCR Layers in LibreOffice


The above is a screen capture taken from a PDF document that was scanned and had OCR run when the PDF had been created. The appearance looks fine, and trying to search the document for any word also works well.

This original law has undergone multiple revisions and I’m wanting to compile the original law and its many revisions into a single document. I was thinking that maybe LibreOffice Draw could be used for this task; however, when I open the PDF in LO, it displays both the raster image of the original document, plus the OCR text.

Is there anyway to control the two layers? For example, turning the display of the text layer off and only seeing the raster layer while still maintaining the ability to search the newly LO edited PDF?

No, I don’t think LibreOffice is suitable for this.
The possibilities that Draw offers are mainly for making minor corrections in a PDF.
Draw is not a PDF editor in the true sense of the word. See:
How to open PDF file in Draw

Look for a PDF editor that can meet your needs.

It is explicitly not a recommendation: PDF24

Good to know what not to try! Thanks Harald!

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