PDF OCR Online | Make Scanned PDFs Searchable

Turn scanned PDF pages into searchable text. Extract text, preview OCR results and create a searchable PDF directly in your browser.

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OCR language English Spanish French German Portuguese Italian

OCR resolution 120 DPI - Faster 160 DPI - Balanced 200 DPI - Higher accuracy

Output filename

Pages to OCR

All pages Selected pages

OCR works best with clear scanned documents, high contrast and reasonably straight pages. Processing happens in your browser.

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Extracted text

The searchable PDF keeps the original appearance on OCR-processed pages by placing an invisible searchable text layer over the rendered page. OCR accuracy depends on scan quality, fonts, layout and language.

Convert Scanned PDFs Into Searchable Documents

Scanned PDFs often contain images instead of real text. A normal PDF text extractor cannot read those pages. OCR analyzes the page image and creates machine-readable text.

This tool combines PDF page rendering with browser-based OCR. The original PDF does not need to be uploaded to a remote processing server.

How to OCR a PDF

1. Upload your scanned PDF.
2. Choose the document language.
3. Select the OCR resolution.
4. Choose all pages or enter specific pages.
5. Start OCR.
6. Review the extracted text.
7. Download the searchable PDF or TXT file.

What This PDF OCR Tool Does

• Reads scanned PDF pages as images.
• Recognizes printed text with Tesseract OCR.
• Creates a searchable text layer.
• Preserves the visual appearance of OCR-processed pages.
• Extracts recognized text for copying.
• Downloads extracted text as a TXT file.
• Processes documents inside the browser.

Important OCR Limitations

OCR is not perfect. Low-resolution scans, handwriting, unusual fonts, skewed pages, shadows, stains and complex multi-column layouts can reduce recognition accuracy.

Always review important OCR results before using them for contracts, financial records, legal documents or other sensitive work.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is OCR in a PDF?

OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. OCR converts text contained inside scanned page images into machine-readable text.

Can this tool make a scanned PDF searchable?

Yes. OCR text is added as a searchable text layer over the rendered scanned page.

Does the PDF get uploaded to a server?

The OCR processing is performed in your browser. The tool does not need a server-side PDF processing service.

Can I OCR only certain pages?

Yes. Select the Selected pages option and enter page numbers or ranges such as 1-3, 5, 8-10.

What PDF scans produce the best OCR results?

Clean, straight, high-contrast scans with readable printed text generally produce better OCR results than blurry, distorted or heavily compressed scans.

Does OCR work with handwritten documents?

This version is intended primarily for printed text. Handwriting recognition is less reliable and is not the main target of this tool.