PDF OCR

OCR scanned PDFs online for free. Convert image text to searchable, copyable layers. Supports mixed languages and handwriting. No signup needed.

When this tool fits best

• Search through a scanned contract archive

  Make scanned contracts searchable so you can hit Cmd/Ctrl+F in Acrobat or Preview to find a clause instantly.

• Digitize an old paper or library scan

  Add a text layer to library-scanned papers so reference managers can index, quote and excerpt them.

• Pull data out of receipts and ID photos

  Convert receipt or card photos into searchable PDFs, then pull amounts, IDs or dates out using a text tool.

Features

• Mixed Latin and CJK recognition

  Handles Latin scripts and Chinese mixed inline; the recognized text becomes selectable, copyable and searchable.

• Original layout preserved

  We overlay an invisible text layer on the original page image — visually unchanged, but searchable.

• Handwriting handled when legible

  Clean handwritten notes are recognized reasonably well so you can index meeting notes.

• Great front-end for other tools

  After OCR you can run the file through Word, Excel, split or merge for much better downstream results.

• Per-page progress indicator

  You can see current page / total pages while it processes, so long jobs are predictable.

• No third-party OCR involved

  All OCR runs on our infrastructure; nothing is forwarded to external cloud OCR providers.

How to use

1. 1
   Upload a scan or image-based PDF

   Pick the PDF (≤ 500MB). Text-based PDFs work too and just get a refreshed text layer.

2. 2
   Run page-by-page recognition

   We perform layout analysis and recognize text per page, locating each character in the page coordinate system.

3. 3
   Overlay the searchable text layer

   An invisible text layer is overlaid on the original page image so the visual look is unchanged.

4. 4
   Download a searchable PDF

   Use Cmd/Ctrl+F to search; for editable text run the file through the Word converter next.

Limits and things to watch out for

• Low resolution and blurry scans— Pages under 200 DPI or photographed out of focus will see noticeably lower accuracy.
• Decorative or stylized fonts— Heavy decorative fonts and ornate handwriting can drop accuracy.
• Skew and moiré artifacts— Deskew the page and reduce moiré before OCR for best results.
• Limited tuning for minor languages— Today we are tuned strongly for Latin scripts and Chinese; minor languages may underperform — feedback welcome.

FAQ

QIt still looks like a scan after OCR — is that right?

Yes. We add an invisible text layer over the page image, so it looks identical but is now searchable and copyable.

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QRoughly how accurate is recognition?

Clean printed scans usually exceed 95%; blurry, skewed and handwritten pages drop below that.

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QHow do I get an editable document?

Run OCR first so the PDF is searchable, then run the file through PDF → Word for a real editable copy.

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QDo you call any third-party OCR API?

No — all OCR runs locally on our infrastructure.

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QThere are typos in the recognition output — what now?

After converting to Word you can do a global find-and-replace, or fix them inside a PDF editor.

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QHow many pages can I process at once?

There is no hard page cap; the only constraint is the 500MB file-size limit. Split very large files first.

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QCan I OCR encrypted PDFs?

Decrypt them first.

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QHow long are files kept?

They are purged within an hour.