OCR PDF
OCR PDF makes a scanned PDF searchable. Your browser reads the text on each scanned page and adds it to the PDF as an invisible layer. The pages look exactly as they did, and now you can search, select and copy their text.
- Input
- One PDF, scanned or partly scanned
- Output
- The same PDF with searchable text
- Runs
- In your browser. The file never leaves your device.
- Cost
- Free. No sign-up, no watermark.
How to make a scanned PDF searchable
Choose the PDF
Drop the scanned PDF onto the page, or click to choose it. It stays on your device.
Choose which pages to read
By default only pages without text are read. Choose Every page if a scan has a stamp or header typed onto it.
Make it searchable
Click Make searchable. Each page is read in turn, and a progress bar shows how far it has got.
Download the PDF
The same document comes back with its text added: search it with Ctrl+F, or select and copy it.
OCR a PDF without uploading it
Pages stay exactly as scanned
The text is added as an invisible layer over each page. The scan keeps its original image quality, and links and bookmarks are kept.
Search, select and copy
Each word is placed over the word it was read from, so highlighting follows the printed text. Words are separated by real spaces when you copy them.
Only the pages that need it
Pages that already have text are left alone, so a document that is partly typed and partly scanned is handled correctly.
Never uploaded
Recognition runs in your browser with Tesseract, an open-source OCR engine, so confidential scans never reach a server.
Frequently asked questions
What does OCR do to a PDF?
OCR (optical character recognition) reads the text in a picture. A scanned PDF is a set of pictures of pages, so you cannot search it or copy from it. After OCR, the words are in the file as real text, while the pages look the same.
Which languages can it read?
English, and other languages written in the same basic Latin letters, though accents may be read wrongly. Other alphabets, such as Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic and Chinese, are not supported yet.
How long does it take?
A few seconds per page on a typical computer, and longer on a phone. The first run also downloads the text recognizer and its English model, about 7 MB, so it takes longer than later runs.
Why was my scanned page skipped?
Pages that already have text are skipped, because reading them again would add the text a second time. Some scanners type a date or page number onto each page. If yours does, choose Every page.
Can I edit the recognized text?
Not with this tool, which keeps the scan exactly as it is. To change the words on a scanned page, open it in Edit PDF, which can recognize a page's text and let you edit it in place.
Why are some words wrong when I copy them?
OCR is only as good as the scan. Small, faint, blurred or tilted text, and handwriting, is read less accurately. Pages scanned upside down or sideways are not straightened first, so turn them the right way up with Rotate PDF before running OCR.
Is my file uploaded anywhere?
No. OCR PDF runs entirely in your browser: the file is opened and processed on your own device and is never sent to our server. More in the privacy policy.
Is OCR PDF free to use?
Yes. OCR PDF is free, with no account to create and no software to install — open the page in a modern browser and start.