PDF OCR
Extract text from scanned PDFs and images using AI-powered OCR.
About About the PDF OCR Tool
About the PDF OCR Tool
Our free PDF OCR (Optical Character Recognition) tool extracts text from scanned PDF documents and images. If you have a PDF that was created by scanning a physical document, the text is stored as an image rather than selectable text. OCR technology analyzes the image, recognizes the characters, and converts them into editable, searchable text that you can copy, edit, and save.
This tool uses Tesseract.js, a powerful open-source OCR engine that runs entirely in your browser. It supports English text recognition and can process both PDF documents and individual images (JPG, PNG). For PDFs, the tool renders each page as an image and performs OCR on every page. For best results, upload clear, high-resolution scans with good contrast between text and background.
All OCR processing happens locally in your browser — no files are uploaded to any server. This means your scanned documents remain completely private, making it safe to process sensitive materials like contracts, personal records, or confidential correspondence.
How to Use PDF OCR
- Upload — Upload a scanned PDF document or an image file (JPG, PNG) containing text.
- Wait for Processing — The OCR engine loads in your browser and processes each page. This may take a moment for large documents.
- Review Text — The extracted text appears in the output area. Review the results and fix any recognition errors.
- Copy or Save — Copy the extracted text to clipboard or save it for use in other applications.
Who Needs PDF OCR
- Digitize Printed Documents — Convert physical documents, books, and articles into editable digital text.
- Extract Text from Scanned PDFs — Get text out of scanned PDFs that have no selectable text layer.
- Make Documents Searchable — Add searchable text to scanned documents for easier information retrieval.
- Archive & Repurpose — Extract quotes, data, and content from scanned materials for digital use.
Frequently Asked Questions
OCR accuracy depends on the quality of the original scan. Clear, high-contrast documents with standard fonts typically achieve 95%+ accuracy. Low-resolution scans, handwritten text, and decorative fonts may produce less accurate results.
The tool currently supports English text recognition. Tesseract.js supports many languages, and additional language support may be added in future updates.
The tool currently processes up to 5 pages from a PDF to manage memory usage. For larger documents, you can process sections separately. Individual images have no page limit.
Yes, 100% private. Tesseract.js runs entirely in your browser — no image data is sent to any server. Your scanned documents never leave your device.
OCR Text Extraction
100% privateUpload a scanned PDF or image
Supports PDF, JPG, PNG. Processing happens in your browser.
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