Can I skip OCR and edit the scan directly?

The editor will offer to recognize text when it opens a page with none. It is the same OCR under the hood — running the OCR tool first just gives you language choice and a reusable searchable file.

Will the edited scan still look scanned?

Yes. Your new text is drawn over a background patch sampled from the page, so edits sit naturally in the scanned image.

Does OCR change how the pages look?

No. The text layer is invisible; the page image stays exactly as scanned.

Guide · updated 2026-11-02

How to edit text in a scanned PDF

A scanned PDF is a photograph of a page: there are no letters inside, only pixels, which is why editors and search cannot touch it. The fix is OCR — optical character recognition — which reads the image and adds a real text layer. After that, a scanned PDF behaves like any other PDF: searchable, copyable, editable.

Editing scanned text is a premium feature in most tools. Here both halves are free: OCR to make the text real, the editor to change it.

Step by step

1Run OCR on the scan. Open the OCR PDF tool, drop the scan, pick the document language and start. You get the same PDF back with an invisible, accurate text layer under the image.
2Open the result in Edit PDF. From the result, continue straight into the editor — the file hands over without re-uploading.
3Edit like a normal PDF. Switch to Edit text, click a line and retype it. The editor patches the background image behind your change, so the page keeps its scanned look.
4Save. Press Save PDF. Tick "Permanently remove covered text" if the original words must not be recoverable.

OCR PDF

Set expectations: scan quality decides OCR quality

OCR on a clean 300-DPI scan of printed text is near-perfect. Skewed photos, low light, small fonts or handwriting lower the accuracy — handwriting especially is not reliably readable by any OCR engine. If a critical word came out wrong, just correct it in the editor afterwards.

The language choice matters more than people expect: OCR with the wrong language model mangles accents and special characters. Pick the document’s language, not your own.

Frequently asked questions

Can I skip OCR and edit the scan directly?: The editor will offer to recognize text when it opens a page with none. It is the same OCR under the hood — running the OCR tool first just gives you language choice and a reusable searchable file.
Will the edited scan still look scanned?: Yes. Your new text is drawn over a background patch sampled from the page, so edits sit naturally in the scanned image.
Does OCR change how the pages look?: No. The text layer is invisible; the page image stays exactly as scanned.

Ready to try it?

Free, in your browser — no signup, no watermark, files deleted after 60 minutes.

OCR PDF