OCR PDF

Recognize the words in scanned pages and add a searchable text layer.

How to make a scanned PDF searchable (OCR)

  1. 1

    Select your scanned PDF.

  2. 2

    Choose the language of the document.

  3. 3

    Click Recognize text and download a searchable PDF and a .txt file.

Questions and answers

What does OCR do?

Optical character recognition reads the words in a scanned page and adds an invisible text layer, so you can search, select and copy the text. The page looks exactly the same.

Which languages are supported?

English and most languages written in the Latin alphabet, such as Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch. Language data is downloaded the first time you use it.

How long does it take?

A few seconds per page on a recent computer, longer on phones. Pages that already have text can be skipped.

Is PDFfinch free?

Yes. Every tool is free to use, with no account, no email and no watermark added to your files.

Does it work on my phone?

Yes. PDFfinch works in any modern browser on Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone and Android. There is nothing to install.

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