Make a scanned PDF searchable, without uploading it
Scanned contracts, statements and records are hard to work with until you can search them. Here is how to add text to a scan without sending it to an online service.
Why a scan cannot be searched
A scanner or a phone camera saves each page as a picture. It looks like text to you, but the file holds no letters, so search, copy and screen readers find nothing.
What text recognition does
It reads the letters in the picture and lays them over the page as invisible text. The page looks exactly as before, and your PDF app can now search it and copy from it. You also get the text as a plain text file.
Recognition runs on your device. The scan is never sent anywhere.
Steps
- Open Text recognition (OCR) and drop the scanned PDF.
- Choose the language of the document: English, French, Japanese, or Japanese and English.
- To read only some pages, type them in Pages, for example 1-3,5.
- Press Run. The first run takes longer while the reading data loads; later runs take a few seconds per page.
- Download the searchable PDF and the text file, then search the PDF to check.
Tips for good results
- Scan pages straight, well lit, with the quality setting turned up.
- Turn sideways or upside-down pages first with Rotate PDF.
- Handwriting, faint print and very small text cause mistakes. Recognition is never 100% accurate, so check names and numbers that matter.
- One run reads up to 200 pages. For the rest, choose the next pages and run again.
Questions and answers
Is my scan uploaded?
No. The recognition engine runs inside this page. Its reading data is downloaded from this site once and then kept on your device.
Which languages are supported?
English, French and Japanese.
Is this a Pro feature?
Yes. You can try it once for free, then with a 7-day pass or a lifetime key.
Last updated: 2026-09-14