OCR PDF
Make scanned PDFs searchable and selectable — the page looks exactly the same.
or drop a PDF here
PDF · up to 15 MB free
🛡 Private to you · files are deleted after 60 minutes
- Looks identical, works better
- Detects the language for you
- Cleaner scans, better results
- How we protect your files
To make a scanned PDF searchable, run it through OCR here: the tool recognizes the text on each scan and layers it invisibly over the image, so the page looks identical but you can search, select and copy. The language is detected automatically.
How it works
- 1
Add your scanned PDF
Drop a scan, a photographed document or an image-only PDF on this page.
- 2
Text is recognised
The language is detected automatically and every word is read and placed exactly over the image.
- 3
Download the searchable PDF
Search with Ctrl+F, select and copy text — while the pages look just like the original.
Looks identical, works better
An invisible text layer sits under the original image, so nothing changes visually but everything becomes searchable.
Detects the language for you
No need to pick a language — it is identified per document, across dozens of scripts.
Cleaner scans, better results
Pages are deskewed and cleaned before recognition, so crooked phone photos still read well.
Frequently asked questions
What does OCR do to my PDF?
It adds a hidden text layer matching the words on each page, so you can search, select and copy — the visible page stays the same.
Which languages are supported?
Dozens of languages and scripts; the document's language is detected automatically.
What if my PDF already has text?
Pages that already contain real text are left as they are; only image pages are recognised.
Can I edit the text afterwards?
Yes — open the result in Edit PDF to change it, or convert it with PDF to Word for full editing.
How do I copy text from a scanned PDF?
Run OCR on the scan first — it adds a selectable text layer under the image. Afterwards you can copy text or convert the file to Word.
More PDF tools
PDF to Word
Turn a PDF into an editable Word document — layout, tables and all.
PDF to Excel
Pull tables and numbers out of a PDF into a spreadsheet.
PDF to PowerPoint
Turn each PDF page into an editable slide.
PDF to JPG
Turn every page into a sharp JPG image.
JPG to PDF
Combine images into one tidy PDF.
Word, Excel & PowerPoint to PDF
Convert Office and text documents to clean, shareable PDFs.