OCR a scanned PDF into searchable text
A scanned PDF is a stack of photographs — you can read it, but Ctrl+F finds nothing and copying a sentence is impossible. OCR reads the images and adds an invisible text layer, turning the scan back into a real document.
OCR runs locally with bundled English recognition data. No file is uploaded.
Up to 50 MB per file. Files are processed in your browser.
Full options and FAQs on the PDF OCR page.
What OCR gives you
- Search: find any word in a 300-page scan instantly.
- Copy and paste: quote a paragraph without retyping it.
- Accessibility: screen readers can read the document aloud.
- Archiving: text-layer PDFs are indexable by document systems.
How accurate to expect it to be
On a clean, straight, typed scan, modern OCR is excellent — often word-perfect. Accuracy drops with skewed pages, handwriting, decorative fonts, low contrast and coffee stains. Numbers and unusual names are the first things to misread, so verify those by eye whenever they matter, like totals and reference codes.
Getting the best result
OCR quality is set at scan time more than at processing time. A 200-300 DPI, straight, well-lit scan converts cleanly; a tilted phone photo of a crumpled receipt does not. If the document matters, re-scanning one bad page beats correcting its text forever. After processing, search for a few distinctive words to confirm the layer landed.
Step by step
- 1Add your scanned PDF to the OCR tool below.
- 2Run the recognition and let it process every page.
- 3Download the searchable PDF.
- 4Open it and search for a word you can see on page one.
- 5Spot-check numbers and names against the image before relying on them.
Frequently asked questions
- Does OCR change how the document looks?
- No — the page images stay exactly as they were; a searchable text layer is added underneath.
- Can it read handwriting?
- Poorly, in most cases. Neat printed handwriting sometimes works; cursive rarely does. Plan to retype handwritten content.
- Is my document uploaded for processing?
- No — recognition runs in your browser on your device.