OCR PDF: Make a Scanned PDF Searchable
Run OCR on scanned PDFs to make text selectable and searchable.
By Syed Mubashir Ali · Last updated
How to Use PDF Make Searchable
- 1Drop a scanned PDF into the upload area.
- 2Choose the document's language, and a second one if it mixes two (for example Urdu and English).
- 3Leave 'Skip pages that already have text' ticked, so only scanned pages are read.
- 4Click 'Make searchable'. Progress is shown page by page, and you can cancel.
- 5Download the result: it looks the same, but you can now select, copy and search its text.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 'make searchable' do?
A scanned PDF is pictures of pages. The tool reads the words in those pictures with OCR and adds an invisible text layer exactly over them, so PDF viewers can search, select and copy the text. The pages look the same.
Which languages are supported?
English, Urdu, Arabic, Hindi, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Turkish and Simplified Chinese, and any two together. The language data downloads the first time you use each one.
What about pages that already have text?
They're skipped by default. Reading them again would put every word in twice, which makes searches and copied text come out doubled.
How accurate is it?
Clean scans at 200–300 DPI of printed text usually read very accurately. Blurry photos, low-resolution scans and handwriting read less well.
Is my document uploaded?
No. OCR runs on your device with Tesseract, compiled to WebAssembly. Only the language data is downloaded.
About PDF Make Searchable
PDF Make Searchable runs optical character recognition (OCR) on scanned PDFs, so you can search them, copy their text and use them with screen readers, without uploading anything.
Each scanned page is rendered upright at about 250 DPI and read by Tesseract. Tesseract's own PDF writer then produces an invisible text layer in a 'glyphless' font, which is laid exactly over the page; the same approach OCRmyPDF uses. Because that font has no shapes to draw, it works for every script, including Urdu, Arabic, Hindi and Chinese. Pages that already have text are left alone, and rotated or cropped pages are handled.
Use it for old contracts, receipts, letters, printed books and archives, or to make documents easier to use with assistive technology.