Optical Character Recognition Software

I found an excellent technical report on the Synopsis of Biological Data on the Nassau Grouper, Epinephelus striatus (Bloch, 1792), and the Jewfish, E. itajara (Lichtenstein, 1822). I was particularly impressed by the morphological description:

... Ground color generally buff, with 5 dark brown vertical bars and a large black saddle blotch on top of the caudal peduncle; a row of black spots below and behind the eyes. Distinctive dark tuning-fork mark beginning at front of upper jaw, extending dorsally along interorbal region, and bifurcating on top of the head behind the eyes; another dark band from tip of snout through eye and then curving upward to meet its fellow just before dorsal-fin origin. ...

The description continues along the same lines for almost half a page. I was trying to establish if you could create a correct mental image of this creature without having actually ever seen (even a photo or drawing of) one. This is a common philosophical problem, which Bertrand Russell discusses in The Problems of Philosophy; Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description.

Anyway, the reason this article is called "Optical Character Recognition Software" is because the report, which was in Adobe PDF format, would not allow text to be copied. I thought one possible solution might be to capture a screenful and run it through some OCR software. No doubt this may be in violation of copyright laws.