How to Convert a Scanned PDF to Editable Text (OCR)
A scanned PDF is just a picture of a page, so you can't select or search its text. OCR (optical character recognition) reads the picture and gives you real text.
Run OCR in three steps
- Open the OCR tool and upload your scanned PDF, or a JPG, PNG, WebP or BMP image (PDFs up to 60 pages).
- Choose your output: a searchable PDF, an editable Word document, or plain text.
- Wait while the pages are processed, then download the result.
Which output should I choose?
Choose a searchable PDF if you want to keep the original look but be able to search and copy text. Choose Word if you need to edit the content. Choose plain text if you just want the words.
Getting accurate results
OCR works best on clear, well-lit, straight scans of printed text. Blurry photos, skewed pages and handwriting are read less reliably, and text recognition currently supports English.
If you are starting from a photo of a paper document, scan it with the Document Scanner first to straighten the page and improve contrast.