FREE · PDF TOOLS
Searchable PDF OCR.
Add local OCR text layers to scanned PDF pages for search and selection. Review results and retain all original pages. Arabic/RTL export is unsupported.
20 MiB source · 200 source pages · up to 20 selected pages per run. All original pages stay in the exported PDF. Documents stay in your browser; OCR engine and selected models load from this site. Existing digital signatures become invalid. No PDF/A certification or secure redaction.
Printed text works best; handwriting is unreliable. Arabic/RTL and supplementary Unicode characters are unsupported in this PDF export because the engine does not preserve them reliably. Arabic OCR remains available in PDF to Word. Pages with any existing text are skipped, including pages mixing digital text and scanned areas.
How to use Searchable PDF OCR
Choose a PDF and up to three supported recognition languages. Recognize up to 20 selected pages, review the text and exclude incorrect layers, then prepare and download the searchable PDF.
How it works
Ten recognition models are available: English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Hindi, simplified Chinese and Japanese. Native invisible text layers are aligned to original visible page geometry, including CropBox and rotation. All source pages remain in the output; excluded and unselected pages receive no layer. Any existing nonempty text skips the whole page, including mixed digital/scanned pages. Text layers are read-only: rerun OCR or exclude incorrect pages; use PDF-to-Word for manually corrected text. Extra rotation and contrast affect recognition only; no automatic deskew. Generated fixture checks verify searchable text, approximate word selection bounds and unchanged pixels with PDF.js; general accuracy and native viewer behavior need review. Existing digital signatures become invalid. All processing is local.
Example
Recognize a scanned reference number, keep a digital page unchanged and find the reference in the exported PDF.
Questions about Searchable PDF OCR
Is Searchable PDF OCR free, and do I need an account?
Yes. This tool is free to use in your browser without an account. Processing takes place on your device.
What are the limits and what should I check?
20 MiB source, 200 source pages, 20 selected pages per run and 500,000 review characters. Arabic/RTL and supplementary Unicode export unsupported. Printed text only; handwriting is unreliable. Pages with existing text are skipped. No PDF/A, signature preservation or secure redaction. Review the downloaded document, especially page order and watermarks.
Is my input sent to a server?
Your input is processed in your browser and is not uploaded by this tool. Files and pasted text are cleared when the page is refreshed. Normal website requests are still required to load the page and its libraries. Read the privacy explanation.