It's Hot Outside! What's Hot inside the office?

It's summer and it's hot outside. Want to know what's hot inside the office as well? You've heard of "Searchable PDF," right? Well, let me tell you what it is and why it's HOT!

Scanned paper documents are stored in an image (rather than text) format. PDF (Portable Document Format) is a universal file format for document exchange that preserves all the fonts, formatting, colors, and graphics of any source document (whether it's on paper or from the Web or other electronic sources). Preservation is faithful regardless of the application and platform used to create or view the material. PDF files can be shared, viewed, navigated, and printed on a broad range of operating systems by anyone using free Adobe Acrobat Reader or other software.

With scanning software, volumes of legacy paper documents may be converted to PDF so you can search, annotate, publish, and archive all of your information in a digital environment. There are different types of PDF for use when scanning paper-based documents but let's concentrate on "PDF Searchable."

PDF Searchable Image is a PDF image-only document with the addition of a text layer beneath the image. This approach retains the look of the original page while enabling text searchability. PDF Searchable Image files contain two layers: a bitmapped (image) layer and a hidden text layer. The bitmapped layer maintains the visual representation of the orginial document. The text layer contains the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) version so you can search for any word on any page. That is hot!

The OCR process required to create PDF Searchable Image typically provides text accuracy of 97 to 99 percent. That means that Searchable PDF technology enables you to find a single word instantly that may be hidden inside a 100-page PDF document. Very hot!

Cobb Opens Second Tidewater Office in Virginia Beach

Cobb Technologies, Virginia’s leading independent office technology dealer, has opened a new office in Virginia Beach. The new office, which opened in late May 2011, is located at 4646 Princess Anne Road, Suite 105. The 1800 sq. ft. office and showroom is part of the Ogden Centre business complex.

Cobb Technologies has a second office in the Tidewater area located in Newport News.

Cobb Technologies is the Tidewater area’s leading provider of Canon, Konica Minolta and Kyocera copiers, printers, multifunctional devices, scanning technology, and document and managed print services for businesses, government, and educational and non-profit organizations. The company’s offices in Virginia Beach and Newport News are managed by Kevin Oberman, Tidewater Regional Sales Manager. Cobb has five account executives and nine service technicians covering the entire Tidewater area and locally warehouses equipment parts and supplies at its Newport News location for faster service.

Cobb Technologies has been serving the document solutions needs of Virginia businesses since 1990. Cobb is headquartered in Richmond and has seven offices throughout Virginia.