PDF OCR Tool | Extract Text from Scanned PDFs
Run OCR on scanned PDF pages to detect text, create copyable output, and recover content from image-based documents or photographed pages.
What PDF OCR Does
PDF OCR reads text from scanned pages, photos, and image-based documents where normal copy-paste does not work. It turns visible words into editable text output.
OCR Accuracy Factors
OCR accuracy depends on scan quality, language, contrast, blur, rotation, handwriting, and font clarity. Review names, numbers, dates, and legal or financial details manually.
When OCR Is the Right Choice
Use OCR for scanned contracts, receipts, forms, book pages, screenshots, and photographed documents. For digitally generated PDFs with selectable text, PDF to Text is usually faster and cleaner.
About This Tool
OCR PDF uses optical character recognition to extract text from scanned PDF documents that store pages as images rather than searchable text. It produces a text layer that makes the document searchable, copyable, and accessible.
When to Use It
Use this when you have a scanned contract or form and need to copy text from it, when archiving physical documents as searchable PDFs, or when a scanned PDF needs to be converted to an editable format.
How to Use
- Upload your scanned PDF file.
- Select the language of the document text.
- Click Process to run optical character recognition.
- Download the searchable PDF or extract the plain text.
Frequently Asked Questions
What scanning quality produces the best OCR results?
Scan at 300 DPI or higher for reliable recognition. Documents scanned at 150 DPI or lower may produce errors, especially for small text.
Can it recognise handwriting?
OCR works best on printed text. Handwriting recognition requires specialised models and is not included in standard OCR tools.
Which languages are supported?
Common languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, and others are supported. Check the language selector for the full list.