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How to OCR a PDF in your browser

Quick answer

Upload the PDF to the OCR tool. Choose PDF to Text if you want the words themselves, or Scanned PDF to Searchable PDF if you want the document to keep looking the same but become searchable and selectable.

  1. 1Upload your PDF.
  2. 2Choose PDF to Text, or Scanned PDF to Searchable PDF.
  3. 3Wait for every page to process.
  4. 4Copy the text, or download the result.
OCR this PDFAll OCR tools

Free, no sign-up, and your file is read on your own device rather than uploaded.

"OCR a PDF" usually means one of two different things, and it is worth knowing which one you actually need before you start: pulling the text out to use elsewhere (PDF to Text), or keeping the document exactly as it looks while adding the ability to search, select and copy from it (Scanned PDF to Searchable PDF).

Both start the same way - upload the file, and each page is checked for real text already present. Pages that already have text are used directly; pages that are genuinely scans are read with OCR, rendered from Tesseract, a mature open-source engine, running entirely in your browser rather than on a server.

Step by step

  1. Upload your PDF

    Scanned, typed, or a mix of both.

    OCR Text Extractor

  2. Choose what you need

    PDF to Text for the words themselves; Scanned PDF to Searchable PDF to keep the look and add search and selection.

    OCR Text Extractor

  3. Wait for processing

    Page-by-page progress is shown, so a long document does not look stuck.

    OCR Text Extractor

  4. Get your result

    Copy or download the text, or download the searchable PDF.

    OCR Text Extractor

Tips

  • If you are not sure which you need: choose Searchable PDF when the document itself still needs to be shared or filed and just needs to work like a normal PDF; choose PDF to Text when you need the words on their own, separate from the page layout.
  • A rotated or sideways page will not OCR correctly - straighten it with Rotate PDF first, then run OCR on the corrected file.
  • Check the PDF Inspector first if you are not sure whether a document needs OCR at all - it tells you directly whether pages already have real text.

Common problems

You're not sure whether you need Text or Searchable PDF.

Searchable PDF if the file itself needs to keep being a normal-looking document that can now be searched. PDF to Text if you specifically need the words as their own text, separate from the document.

A page came out with garbled or wrong text.

Check that page specifically for rotation, very low image quality, or handwriting - all three are known limits of this OCR engine.

Frequently asked questions

What does OCRing a PDF actually do?
It reads the text in pages that are images (scans) rather than real text, and either returns that text directly or adds it as an invisible, searchable layer on top of the original page image.
Does OCR work on every page, even ones that already have text?
No - pages that already have real, selectable text are used as they are. Only pages with no extractable text (genuine scans) are read with OCR.
Is there a cost or sign-up?
No - it is free, with no account needed.
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. Every page is processed entirely in your browser, on your own device.

Doing several things to this file?

"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.

OCR this PDFAll articles