OCR PDF
Recognizes text in scanned pages and layers it invisibly over the image, making the PDF searchable.
- No upload — runs on your device
- Free, no sign-up
- No watermark
What OCR PDF does
Recognizes text in scanned pages and layers it invisibly over the image, making the PDF searchable. A scanned document is just a picture of text as far as a computer is concerned — OCR (Optical Character Recognition) reads the text in the image and layers it invisibly underneath, making the page searchable and its text selectable without changing how it looks. Recognition works entirely in your browser and performs best on clear, reasonably high-resolution scans with standard printed fonts.
Works well with: PDF to Text · PDF to Word · Compress PDF
Runs 100% in your browser
PDFHook processes this file using JavaScript on your own device. It's never uploaded, stored, or seen by anyone else — and it works even if your connection drops mid-way.
OCR PDF in 3 steps
Upload a scanned PDF
Works best on clear, reasonably high-resolution scans.
Recognition runs in your browser
Each page is analyzed and its text recognized.
Download the searchable PDF
Now you can search, select, and copy the text.
Key features
- Recognizes text directly in your browser
- Makes scanned pages searchable and selectable
- Original page images are preserved exactly
- Recognizes text directly in your browser with nothing uploaded
- Original page image is preserved exactly, with text layered invisibly beneath it
Practical use cases
- Someone has a scanned contract and needs to search it for a specific clause or term.
- A user wants to copy a quote or passage from a scanned book page.
- An organization digitizing paper archives wants the resulting PDFs to be searchable.
Related terminology
- OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
- Technology that identifies and extracts text from an image, making previously unselectable scanned text searchable and copyable.
Frequently asked questions
Does this work on any scanned document?
It works best on clear, reasonably high-resolution scans with standard fonts — handwriting and low-quality scans recognize less reliably.
Will the page still look the same?
Yes — the original page image is kept exactly as-is; the recognized text is layered invisibly underneath it.
Does OCR work on handwritten text?
It's built for printed text and recognizes it more reliably than handwriting, which is inherently harder for OCR technology in general to read accurately.
Can I search the PDF normally after OCR is applied?
Yes — once processed, the PDF supports normal text search and selection in any standard PDF viewer, just like a regular text-based PDF.
Can I OCR a scanned document online for free?
Yes — OCR runs entirely in your browser at no cost, working best on clear, reasonably high-resolution scans with standard printed fonts.
Can this make PDF searchable using text recognition?
Yes — this tool uses PDF text recognition to make PDF searchable; it works to extract text from scanned PDF and convert scanned PDF to text, functioning as a way to OCR scanned document pages directly in your browser.
Is OCR PDF free?
Yes, and there is no sign-up, watermark or daily limit — everything runs in your browser rather than on a metered server.
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