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What's new
What's new · October 2026

Pages with columns now read one column at a time

Text from newspaper and book pages now follows each column from top to bottom, in the text and in the searchable PDF.

Read down one column at a time

On a page with columns, lines used to jump from one column to the next. Now, each column stays together from top to bottom. Right-to-left pages read their columns right to left.

Full scan of the English book page with 2 text columns outlined
View scan
Column 1Column 2

Before: lines jumped between columns.

  1. Column 1Column 2said, more pronounced when the fission is of the unequal They may be in no way different from each other or from ordinary
  2. Column 1Column 2binary type, or in cases of gemmation or multiple fission. In individuals of the species, or, on the other hand, they may be
  3. Column 1Column 2cases also where a given strain of a species is becoming senile, highly differentiated in size, form and structure. The two
  4. Column 1Column 2it is sometimes observed that the individuals are markedly gametes may undergo complete fusion into one body, thus
  5. Column 2giving rise to an individual termed generally a zygote or copula,
  6. Column 2but which may bear special names in special cases (e.g. vermicule
  7. Column 2or oökinete of the malarial parasites, &c.); such a process is
  8. Column 1forms, consists essentially of one and the same process in all
  9. Column 1cases; namely, the fusion of nuclear matter from two distinct
  10. Column 1individuals. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose! Hence
  11. Column 1true syngamy may be distinguished as karyogamy from the
  12. Column 1process of plastogamy, or fusion of the protoplasmic bodies,
  13. Column 1It will be shown below, however, that in some species syngamy
  14. Column 1may perhaps be secondarily in abeyance.
Image source and licence

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, volume 22 (1911). Public domain. View the source record

Select text in one column

In the searchable PDF, dragging across a page with columns used to select text from every column at once. Now, your selection stays in the column you drag in.

What stays the same

  • Bank statements

    Statement rows keep their existing reading order.

  • Tables and forms

    Rows remain together, including tables with nearby labels.

  • Receipts and single-column pages

    These continue to read as they did before.

Where you will see it

  • Text on the results page
  • .txt downloads
  • Word exports
  • Selecting and copying text in the searchable PDF
  • The Document OCR API

Try it with your own page

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