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Make a scanned PDF searchable (OCR)

Add an invisible text layer to a scanned PDF or to photos: selectable text, Ctrl+F search, copy. 6 languages, right in your browser.

  • Free
  • No sign-up
  • No file uploaded
  • Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone

Your files stay on your device: nothing is uploaded.

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About this tool

A scanned PDF is just a series of images: you cannot search a word or copy a sentence. OCR reads each page and adds invisible text placed exactly over the words. The document looks the same but becomes searchable. Everything happens in your browser: the file is never uploaded.

When to use it

Find information in archives

Scanned contracts, statements or letters: search for a name, date or amount instead of reading everything.

Copy a passage from a scanned document

Select a sentence or paragraph right in the PDF, as in a digital document.

Prepare a document for Word or text-to-speech

Once searchable, the PDF works with “PDF to Word” and can be read by a screen reader.

How to use

  1. Select the document's language (several if needed).
  2. Drop a scanned PDF, or photos of pages.
  3. Wait while it is read, page by page.
  4. Download the PDF: its text can be selected and searched with Ctrl+F.

How it works

Each page is rendered at 300 dots per inch, then read by Tesseract.js (Apache 2.0 license) with the “tessdata_fast” language data (Apache 2.0 license).

Tesseract produces an invisible text layer aligned with the words, which the tool places over the original page with pdf-lib. The PDF's images, links and bookmarks are not changed; the file grows by only a few KB per page.

Pages that already contain text are left as they are. Your document is never sent to a server.

Tips for best results

  • A sharp, straight scan at 300 dpi or more gives the best results.
  • Only select the languages present in the document.
  • To photograph pages and straighten them, start with “Scan to PDF with camera”.
  • To just copy the text of one page, “Image to text (OCR)” is quicker.

Common problems and fixes

Search misses some words

They were misread: blurry scan, small font or wrong language selected. Run it again with the right language or a better scan.

Text selection is offset

On a heavily tilted page, the layer follows the detected lines. Straighten the page before OCR, for example with “Scan to PDF with camera”.

The PDF is password-protected

Remove the protection first with “Unlock PDF”, if you are allowed to.

Frequently asked questions

Is the document uploaded to a server?

No. Reading and building the PDF happen in your browser; only the engine and language data are downloaded from our site.

Does the PDF look different?

No. The added text is invisible and placed as a layer; the original images are not recompressed.

Can I start from photos?

Yes: drop one or more photos, each becomes a page of the PDF, with its text.

How many pages at once?

Up to 50. For a longer document, split it, process each part, then merge them.

Is it free, even for commercial use?

Yes. Tesseract.js, the language data (Apache 2.0) and pdf-lib (MIT) allow it; the document stays yours.

Related searches

Still stuck?

Ask on the forum: the category, the tool, your device sheet and the test result will be filled in for you.