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OCR PDF Online Free – Make Scans Searchable

Recognise the text in scanned PDFs and photos. Get a searchable PDF where you can select and copy words, plus a plain-text file.

Free, no sign-upFiles stay on your deviceNo watermark
Drop a scanned PDF or photo here Select file Make scans searchable. English, Hindi and Gujarati supported.

How to OCR a scanned PDF

  1. Add the scan

    Select or drop a scanned PDF or a photo of a document.

  2. Choose languages

    Pick English, Hindi and/or Gujarati.

  3. Run OCR

    Download a searchable PDF and the extracted text.

Everyday uses

  • Search old scans – find a name or number in years of scanned records.
  • Copy text from a photo – reuse text from a notice, letter or book page.
  • Hindi and Gujarati documents – digitise government letters and forms in regional languages.
  • Make scans accessible – screen readers can read OCR’d PDFs.

Good to know

OCR runs entirely in your browser using the Tesseract engine. The first run downloads the language data (about 1–3 MB per language), then it is cached.

Clear, straight, well-lit scans give the best results. Handwriting is not reliably recognised.

Private by design. OCR PDF works inside your browser. Your file is processed on your device and is not uploaded to our server.

Limits to know before you start

  • Recognition is good on clear, straight, well-lit printed text. Handwriting, stamps and very small print are not read reliably.
  • English, Hindi and Gujarati are supported. Choose the right languages before you start.
  • OCR runs on your device and takes about 5–20 seconds per page; long scans take a while on phones.

If something goes wrong

Words come out wrong. Choose the right language, and use a sharper, straighter scan. Rotate sideways pages first with Rotate PDF.

It is slow. OCR runs on your device. Try a computer for long documents, or process fewer pages.

The language data does not download. The first run downloads about 1–3 MB per language from our site. Check your connection and try again.

OCR PDF – questions

What is OCR?

Optical character recognition turns pictures of text into real text you can search, select and copy.

Does it support Hindi and Gujarati?

Yes. Choose the languages used in the document before running OCR.

How long does it take?

Usually 5–20 seconds per page, depending on your device.

Will the PDF look the same?

Yes. The page images stay; an invisible text layer is added on top.

This page describes OCR PDF as it works today. If you notice a difference, tell us and we will correct it. See our editorial standards.

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