Use OCR to turn scanned PDF images into searchable, selectable, copyable text. Keep the original page look with overlay mode, auto-align crooked scans before recognition, or create lighter text-only files with smoother reconstructed fonts.
Drag & Drop Your PDF Here
(or click to select a file)Tap to select
How to Make a Scanned PDF Searchable
Upload Scanned PDF
Open the scanned PDF you want to make searchable or copy text from.
Configure OCR
Choose whole-page OCR or mark repeated regions, pick the document language, keep auto-align enabled for crooked scans, and select overlay or text-only output with optional font smoothing.
Download Result
Download a searchable PDF with selectable text. Overlay mode preserves the scanned look, while text-only mode creates smaller OCR PDFs with smoother line or page-level fonts.
Chain with Other Tools
Run OCR first to make text searchable, then chain to Hide for redaction, Crop to clean scan borders, or Merge to assemble searchable archives.
Why use our OCR PDF tool?
100% Private & Secure
OCR processing happens entirely in your browser. Your scanned documents never leave your device.
100+ Languages
Recognize documents in English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, and 100+ other languages.
Batch-Friendly Regions
OCR only the relevant areas and reuse the same region setup across pages for recurring forms, invoices, or scans.
Auto-Align Scans
Straighten crooked scanned pages automatically before OCR so recognition starts from aligned content.
Searchable or Text-Only Output
Overlay mode keeps the original scan while adding selectable text. Text-only mode is ideal for smaller searchable archives and can smooth detected font sizes by line or page.
Common Use Cases
- •Make scanned contracts searchable so you can find clauses fast
- •Copy text from PDF scans instead of retyping invoices and receipts
- •Convert scanned books and reports into searchable PDFs
- •Create smoother text-only OCR PDFs for compact searchable archives
- •Make text selectable in archived paper records
- •Recognize multilingual documents with support for 100+ languages
- •Batch process repeated invoice or form regions across many pages