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Is your PDF a scan, or does it have real text?

Quick answer

Open the PDF Inspector - it shows the page count, each page's size, whether the document has real selectable text or is a scan, and other useful details, without changing the file at all.

  1. 1Open your PDF.
  2. 2Read the summary.
  3. 3Check the page sizes.
  4. 4Open the per-page detail if you need it.
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Free, no sign-up, and your file is read on your own device rather than uploaded.

Before converting, compressing or editing a PDF, it often helps to know exactly what you are working with: how many pages, what size, and - the one that trips people up most - whether the document actually contains real, selectable text or is a picture of a page (a scan or an export from a scanner app).

That last distinction matters a lot: PDF to Word and PDF to Excel can only recover text that genuinely exists in the file. A scanned page has none - it is an image, no matter how much it looks like a normal document on screen.

Step by step

  1. Open your PDF

    Read locally in your browser - nothing changes about the file.

    PDF Inspector

  2. Read the summary

    Page count, file size, and whether the document contains selectable text.

    PDF Inspector

  3. Check the page sizes

    Useful before printing, or before combining files that might use different page sizes.

    PDF Inspector

  4. Open the per-page detail

    See text, image and scan-detection information for individual pages.

    PDF Inspector

Tips

  • Check this before running PDF to Word or PDF to Excel on a document you are not sure about - it will tell you immediately whether there is real text to convert, saving a wasted attempt on a scan.
  • If a document is confirmed as a scan with no selectable text, PDF to Word and PDF to Excel will not recover it - the inspector is the fastest way to find that out before trying. The OCR workspace is the tool that reads text out of a scan.
  • Mixed documents happen - some pages with real text, some that are scans stitched into the same file. The per-page detail shows this rather than one summary for the whole document.

Common problems

A PDF to Word conversion came back empty, and you don't know why.

Check it with the inspector first next time - if it shows no selectable text, the document is a scan, and that is exactly why conversion had nothing to recover.

You need to know if a PDF will print correctly across mixed page sizes.

The page size summary shows every page's dimensions, so you can catch a mismatched page before it causes a printing surprise.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know if a PDF is scanned or has real text?
Open it in the PDF Inspector - it checks directly whether the document contains selectable text or is made of images, and reports it plainly rather than leaving you to guess by looking at it.
Can I convert a scanned PDF to Word or Excel?
Not directly - a scanned page has no text for these converters to recover, and the inspector will confirm this before you try, which saves time. Run the OCR workspace on the scan first, then convert the result.
Does checking a PDF change anything about it?
No - the inspector only reads the file and reports on it. Nothing is modified.
What does the per-page detail show?
Text presence, image presence, and scan detection for each individual page, which is useful for documents that mix scanned and typed pages.
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. Inspection happens entirely on your own device.

Doing several things to this PDF?

"Editing a PDF" is usually one of five different jobs. Open the file once and you can do all of them in sequence - reorder the pages, mark it, number it, sign it and shrink it - then download once at the end.

How to edit a PDF without Acrobat

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Ready to do it?

Free, no sign-up, and nothing is uploaded to a server.

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