OCR — Extract Text from Scanned PDFs
Turn scanned pages into selectable, copyable text. Recognition runs in your browser — the document is never uploaded.
Free OCR for Scanned PDFs — In Your Browser
Scanned PDFs are just pictures of text — you can't search, select, or copy anything. OCR (optical character recognition) reads those pictures and turns them back into real text. This tool runs the open-source Tesseract engine directly in your browser, supporting ten languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Hindi, and Chinese.
Unlike online OCR services, your document never leaves your device — only the language model is downloaded, not your file. That makes it safe for scanned contracts, IDs, and medical records.
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FAQ
How accurate is the recognition?
Clean, well-lit scans at 200+ DPI typically recognize very well. Handwriting, low-resolution photos, and unusual fonts reduce accuracy.
Does OCR make my PDF searchable?
Yes — choose the "Searchable PDF" output and the recognized words are embedded as an invisible text layer over the original pages, so the document becomes selectable and searchable while looking identical.
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