OCR PDF

Scanned PDFs are just pictures of text. OCR recognises the words so you can copy them — or get a searchable PDF.

Files are processed temporarily and are not stored permanently
Output

How to use OCR PDF

  1. Choose a scanned PDF.
  2. Pick the language and whether you want plain text or a searchable PDF.
  3. Process up to 5 pages at a time — use the page range for longer documents.

Questions

Do I need OCR for my PDF?

Only if you can’t select the text. If you can, use PDF to Text instead — it’s instant and exact.

What is a searchable PDF?

The same pages with an invisible text layer on top, so you can search (Ctrl+F), select and copy text while the scan still looks the same.

Why only a few pages at a time?

OCR is CPU-intensive, so each run handles up to 5 pages to keep it fast for everyone. Enter ranges like 1-5, then 6-10.