PDF OCR
Make text in scans searchable
Turn scanned PDFs and photos of documents into searchable PDFs. Recognized text can be searched, selected and copied.
- Recognizes text in 16 languages
- Done in seconds
- Free, no sign-up, no watermarks
How it works
How to make a scanned PDF searchable
- 01
Drop a scanned PDF, or JPG, PNG or TIFF images, into the upload area.
- 02
Choose the languages used in the document, up to five.
- 03
Click Make searchable.
- 04
Download your searchable PDF.
16 languages
Recognize English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Turkish, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, Korean, Arabic and Hindi text.
Same look, now searchable
Your pages look exactly as before, with an invisible text layer added so you can search, select and copy.
Works with images too
Upload photos or scans as images. They are turned into a PDF first, then the text is recognized.
Questions
Frequently asked
What is OCR?
OCR (optical character recognition) reads the text in an image of a page. It turns a scan that is just a picture into a PDF where you can search and copy the words.
Which languages are supported?
16 languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, Korean, Arabic and Hindi. You can pick up to five per document.
How do I get the best results?
Select only the languages that actually appear in the document, and use clear, straight scans. Fewer languages give faster and more accurate results.
How long does it take to run OCR on a PDF?
Usually just a few seconds. Very large files can take a little longer.
Is PDF OCR free?
Yes. It is free to use, with no sign-up and no watermarks added to your files.
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