Optimize & Repair

OCR PDF

Run optical character recognition on scanned or image-based PDFs using Tesseract.js - the industry-standard OCR engine compiled to WebAssembly. The tool detects text in each page image and creates a searchable PDF with an invisible text layer, or exports plain text. Supports English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, Chinese (Simplified), and Japanese. No data leaves your browser.

  • Files never leave your device
  • Runs entirely in your browser
  • Free, no account needed
Use OCR PDF - free

Frequently asked questions

Which languages does the OCR support?

English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, Chinese (Simplified), and Japanese. Select your language before running for best accuracy.

My PDF already has selectable text - do I need OCR?

No. OCR is only for scanned or image-based PDFs where the text is a photo, not real characters. If you can already highlight text in your PDF reader, OCR is not needed.

How accurate is the OCR?

Accuracy depends on scan quality, font clarity, and language complexity. Clean, high-resolution scans of printed text typically achieve 95%+ accuracy. Handwriting, decorative fonts, and low-resolution scans will be less accurate.

Make your scanned PDF searchable - free, 10+ languages, no upload.

Open OCR PDF
  • Files never leave your device
  • No upload required
  • No account needed
  • Unlimited use, always free