How to OCR a scanned PDF

Choose a scanned PDF, or drop it into the tool.
Pick the language that matches the scan.
Click Make searchable. Pages are read locally in your browser.
Download the searchable PDF. Invisible text is added so you can find and copy words.

Features

Built for scans

If you cannot select text in the PDF, it is a picture of a page. OCR adds a text layer. Digital PDFs already have text and do not need this.

Stays on your device

Tesseract runs in the browser. We do not upload the PDF to run OCR.

Same OCR PDF job

This page is not a second engine. It is OCR PDF with copy aimed at scanned documents.

20 pages per file

OCR is limited to 20 pages so your browser stays responsive. Split a longer scan first.

No watermark

The searchable file does not get a MyPDF stamp. Free accounts get 5 jobs a day.

Need search, not the word OCR?

Make a PDF searchable is the same tool with different copy.

What OCR does to a scanned PDF

A scanned PDF is a set of page images. Search, copy, and most text tools fail until the words are recognized. MyPDF renders each page, reads it with Tesseract in your browser, and writes invisible text onto the same PDF.

Pick the language that matches the scan. English is the default. Handwriting, stamps, and very low-resolution photos will miss words. This is not a certified archive OCR product.

The file never leaves your device for this job. There is no watermark. Free accounts get 5 jobs a day. OCR is capped at 20 pages per file.

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