Text recognition (OCR)

Read the text of a scanned PDF so you can search and copy it. The text is also saved as a text file.

Recognition is not 100% accurate: handwriting, faint or skewed scans and very small text cause mistakes. Check the text before you rely on search or copy.

Your files are never sent anywhere.

How to use it

  1. Drop the scanned PDF.
  2. Choose the language(s) of the document and, if you want, the pages.
  3. Press Run. Each page is read on this device; then download the searchable PDF and the text file.

Read the guide: Make a scanned PDF searchable, without uploading it

Questions and answers

Is the scan sent to a server for recognition?

No. The text recognition runs inside this page. The reading data is downloaded from this site the first time and kept on your device.

How accurate is it?

Good on clean, straight scans of printed text; weaker on handwriting, blurry images or tilted pages.

Why is the first run slow?

The reading data (a few MB) loads the first time. After that a page takes a few seconds.

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