PDF OCR
Free online PDF OCR. No sign-up needed, and it runs in your browser.
Make a scanned PDF searchable: read the text on every page with OCR, then copy it or download a PDF you can search and select.
About PDF OCR
Scanned contracts, old letters and photographed pages are only pictures, so you can't search them or copy a line out of them. This reads the letters with Tesseract, an open-source OCR engine, running inside your browser in 22 languages. It adds an invisible text layer to each scanned page and leaves pages that already have text alone. You get a searchable PDF plus the text itself.
How to use PDF OCR
- Click Browse and choose your scanned PDF. If a Password box appears, type the PDF's password.
- Pick the Language of the text, and keep Also English ticked if the pages mix in English words.
- Choose Accuracy: Standard for most scans or High for small print. Use Pages (optional) to read only some pages.
- Click Make searchable, then click Download searchable PDF, or use Copy text under the Text found box.
How your data is handled
Your PDF is read in your browser and never uploaded. The first time, the text-recognition engine (about 4 MB) and language data (2–5 MB per language) download from jsDelivr, a public code CDN; no part of your file is sent.
Limits and accuracy
- Handwriting, blurry or crooked scans, tiny print and decorative fonts lower accuracy, so check names and numbers.
- Sideways pages aren't turned automatically; fix them first with Rotate PDF for better results.
- Reading takes a few seconds per page, so long PDFs are slow, especially on phones.
- For password-protected PDFs, the searchable copy is rebuilt from page pictures and saved without the password.
Questions and answers
What does a searchable PDF mean?
The page pictures stay exactly as they were, and an invisible layer of recognised text is placed on top. You can then search, select and copy words in any PDF reader, while the file still looks like the original scan.
Which languages can it read?
English, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu and Vietnamese. Tick Also English for pages that mix English with another language.
How accurate is the text?
Clear, straight, printed scans usually read well, and the result shows an average confidence score. Handwriting, blurry photos, tiny print and decorative fonts cause mistakes, so check names, numbers and amounts. High accuracy helps with small print.
What does Skip pages that already have real text do?
Pages made on a computer already contain text, so reading them again would only add errors. With this ticked, those pages are left as they are, and their existing text is still added to the Text found box.
Is my PDF uploaded for OCR?
No. The text is recognised in your browser. The first time, the reading engine (about 4 MB) and the language data download from jsDelivr, a public code CDN, and your browser usually keeps them for next time.