For a paper document, the EDC staff determines which software is best suited for scanning a document. They may also need to perform test runs to determine the best settings to use on the scanner so the type displays legibly. The document is scanned, and the image file that is created is processed into an editable file. In some cases, stray marks or items such as handwritten notes that the processor does not want on the final document are digitally erased. The staff reviews the editable copy of the digitized document and makes corrections as required.
Some documents require extensive proofreading and editing.
With machine-readable documents, EDC again determines which software is most suitable for each part of the document. Some documents are received fully formatted. Other documents have layout, pagination, or typeface problems or contain tables or other graphical elements that must be processed to display well in the final document. Some documents are submitted in older versions of popular software or in unusual software formats and require substantial reworking. By default, after a page has been scanned and converted to PDF, the software leaves as bit-map images in the PDF output file any words that it suspects may not have been recognized correctly.