Make Any Scanned PDF Searchable and Copyable
Extract and unlock text trapped inside scanned receipts, invoices, legal contracts, and historical books.
Quick Definition & Overview
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) translates bitmap image patterns into digital character codes and overlays a selectable font layer over the scan.
- Preserves original visual look while adding searchable text
- Multi-language recognition (English, Spanish, French, German)
- Enables Ctrl+F search and text copying in any PDF viewer
Input
Scanned PDF
Output
Searchable PDF
Privacy
Auto-Cleaned
Cost
100% Free
How to use OCR PDF
- Upload Scanned PDFChoose your scanned or image-based document.
- Select LanguagePick the language of the document text.
- Run OCRClick 'Process OCR PDF' to generate the searchable layer.
- Download Searchable FileSave your indexed, searchable PDF.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will OCR change the appearance of my original document?
No. The OCR process retains your high-resolution scanned graphics and embeds an invisible text layer behind the images, ensuring pixel-perfect visual fidelity.
Can I search text with Ctrl+F after OCR?
Yes! Once processed, all text becomes completely searchable, selectable, and copy-pasteable in Adobe Acrobat, Chrome, Preview, and all PDF readers.
What is the difference between OCR PDF and a regular PDF?
A regular scanned PDF is just a flat image of a page — you cannot search, highlight, or copy text from it. An OCR PDF has an invisible searchable text layer overlaid on top of the scan, enabling full text search and copy-paste.
How accurate is the OCR text recognition?
Accuracy depends on scan quality. For clean, high-contrast scans of printed text at 150+ DPI, Tesseract typically achieves 95-99% character accuracy. Blurry, low-contrast, or handwritten pages will have lower accuracy.
Does OCR work on handwritten documents?
Tesseract OCR is primarily designed for printed text and produces best results on typed documents. Handwriting recognition accuracy varies significantly based on the clarity and style of handwriting.