Make a scanned PDF searchable for free

How it works

1. 1

   Upload the scanned PDF.

2. 2

   Run OCR on the server and wait while pages are recognised.

3. 3

   Download the searchable PDF.

4. 4

   Open it and use search or copy to check the text.

About the PDF OCR (Make Searchable)

A scanned PDF is a stack of pictures: you can read it, but you cannot search it, copy a sentence or have a screen reader speak it. OCR (optical character recognition) reads the characters in each page image and adds an invisible text layer behind them. The pages look exactly as before, but the words become selectable and searchable. The work is done by OCRmyPDF on our server.

What you can do

• Add a hidden, searchable text layer to every scanned page.
• Search the result with Ctrl+F, copy text into other documents, and let screen readers read it aloud.
• Process mixed files safely: pages that already contain real text are skipped rather than processed twice.
• Keep the original page images untouched, at their original quality.
• Download the result with "-ocr" added to the file name, so the original scan is not overwritten.

When it works best

• Making a scanned archive of letters, invoices or contracts searchable.
• Preparing a scan before converting it to Word, Excel or text.
• Fixing a phone scan so you can copy an address, reference number or quote from it.
• Building a searchable library of old manuals, minutes or research papers.

Things to know

• Recognition is only as good as the scan. Low resolution, skewed pages and handwriting produce more errors.
• Long scans take time; very large files may time out after three minutes, so split them with Split PDF first.
• OCR does not make the text editable on the page. To edit it, convert the result with PDF to Word.
• The maximum upload is 25 MB. The OCR output is held on the server only so you can download it, and it is deleted automatically after about 30 minutes.

Frequently asked questions