Microsoft Syntex optical character recognition (OCR) will support PDF files with images

We are pleased to announce a new enhancement coming soon to the Microsoft Syntex optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities in Microsoft SharePoint Online: We will support hybrid PDF files that contain both text and images.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 419808.

When this will happen

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late October 2024 and expect to complete by early November 2024.

How this will affect your organization

Before this rollout, the OCR feature only supports image-only PDF files.

After this rollout, all newly uploaded hybrid PDF files will be processed by OCR in document libraries where the feature is enabled. This means that PDFs with mixed content will have improved searchability and discoverability.

The process to configure the OCR feature for SharePoint will not change. Admins can go to Microsoft 365 admin center > Home > Setup > Automate content processes with Syntex > Optical Character recognition.

What you need to do to prepare

The change will be on by default.

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Learn more: Overview of optical character recognition in Microsoft Syntex - Microsoft Syntex | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout)