Why use OCR to PDF?

There are a ton of different OCR formats you can utilize:  text, html, word, PDF, etc.  Adobe provides an OCR format that gives you the ability to "carry" converted text along with the original image, called Image with Hidden text.  This format has the benefit of providing full text search capabilities, but also having the pristine original image.  Why use OCR Software?

Lets take for example a SharePoint Scanning application.   Utilizing the PDF iFilter, you can enable SharePoint to crawl OCR PDF content, providing end users not only with column based search capabilities, but also with full text search.  Here is a link to enabling the PDF iFilter.

SharePoint, OCR and PDF

So, when you have a SharePoint Scanning application, why would you want to OCR PDF files?

I am seeing Microsoft SharePoint utilized more and more as a true document management / document imaging solution.  There are many document capture applications that provide the ability to scan, capture, index and OCR to PDF .  The advantage of the image with hidden text PDF, is that if you enable the PDF iFilter (how to enable PDF search in SharePoint ), you have a fully text searchable body of documentation.  SharePoint OCR is becoming a requirement.