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PDF & Image OCR

Extract text from scanned PDFs and photos, and make scans searchable — in 46 languages.

  1. Choose a scanned PDF or photo
  2. Pick the document’s language and press Recognise text
  3. Download the searchable PDF, or copy the text
Runs in your browser. Your data and files never leave your device.

About the PDF & Image OCR

Turn scanned documents, screenshots and photos of pages into editable text. Choose the document’s language for the best accuracy, then copy the text, download it, or download a searchable PDF.

The searchable PDF looks exactly like your original, with the recognised text added invisibly behind each page — so you can search it with Ctrl+F, select and copy text, and find it by its contents later. Photos become a searchable PDF too.

Recognition runs in your browser using the open-source Tesseract engine. The engine and language files are downloaded the first time you use a language; your document stays on your device.

Guides & articles

Frequently asked questions

How accurate is it?

Very good on clear, straight, well-lit printed text. Handwriting, low-resolution scans and unusual fonts are much harder — always proofread.

Does the searchable PDF change how my document looks?

No. The original pages are kept exactly as they are; the recognised text is added as an invisible layer on top, adding only a few kilobytes per page.

Why is the first run slow?

The OCR engine and language data (a few megabytes) download on first use and are then cached by your browser.

Is my PDF uploaded to a server?

No. The PDF is processed by your browser on your own device and never leaves it. Closing the page discards everything.

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