Confirm that the PDF is really a scan
Try selecting a word inside the PDF. If you cannot and every page behaves like one image, the document is a strong candidate for OCR so that text can become searchable or copyable.
Page quality comes first
Skew, shadows, and faint pages reduce recognition accuracy. If you can rescan the source, keep the sheet straight and lighting even. Improving the input is often more effective than correcting a large number of OCR mistakes afterward.
Choose the correct OCR language
For a mixed Arabic and English document, choose an OCR language setting that supports both when available. A mismatched language can cause otherwise clear shapes to be interpreted as the wrong characters or symbols.
Review numbers and names
Even when the general text looks excellent, inspect names, numbers, dates, and monetary values. A one-character error can matter a lot in those fields, so important OCR output should always be reviewed.
Fix repeated skew before processing hundreds of pages
If pages share the same visible tilt, correct the source or orientation before running OCR over the whole document. A small defect repeated across 200 pages creates hundreds of extra recognition opportunities for error, so a five-page pilot can save a great deal of cleanup.
Test the searchable layer, not only the page image
A searchable PDF can keep the original page image while adding an invisible text layer. After OCR, search for a name and a number and copy a sentence into a text editor. If the page looks perfect but search fails or copied text is garbled, the OCR layer still needs attention.