Articles on: Annotations

Why aren't the Annotation tools recognizing text in my script?

If Scriptation's text-aware tools — like the Text Marking tools, Search, or Auto-Highlight — can't "see" text in your script, your PDF is most likely flattened or image-only. Scriptation (and any PDF program) can only mark, search, or transfer text it can actually read.

How to tell if your PDF is flattened

The fastest test is to try the Highlight tool on a line of dialogue.

If the highlight doesn't snap to the text, the file is flattened. You'll see the same behavior across other text-aware features (Search returns no results, Note Transfer can't find a match, etc.).

For background on why this happens, see What is a flattened PDF?. It's common with scanned scripts and with some watermarking programs.

How to fix it

You'll need a non-flattened version of the script. The two options:

Re-export the script from the screenwriting program (Final Draft, Highland, Fade In, etc.) with the text layer preserved. See How should my script be formatted? for the recommended export settings.
Run OCR on the PDF using a tool like Adobe Acrobat or the Preview app on macos. OCR adds a text layer to a scanned or image-only PDF so Scriptation can read it.

📝 NOTE: If you're regularly receiving flattened scripts, it's worth asking whoever distributes them to change their export or watermarking process. A non-flattened, text-based PDF is the industry standard for production.

What's Next

How should my script be formatted?
How do I use the Text Marking tools?
What is a flattened PDF?
How does Scriptation handle watermarks?

Updated on: 25/06/2026

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