PDF tool / 100% free

PDF OCR

Turn a scanned PDF into a searchable document, in over 100 languages. Pages are rendered at 300 DPI, the language is detected from the script automatically, and the original page images are kept so the document still looks like the original. It is free, needs no account, and adds no watermark to your result.

Built for: pdf ocr

PDF OCR

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PDF, Word, images, audio, video, archives and more

Up to 100 files · 250 MB · No account
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When you need this

What people use it for.

Making a scanned contract or invoice searchable so you can find a clause instantly
Digitising archives so their text can be indexed and quoted
Preparing scanned documents in Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Russian or any major script for search
How it works

What happens to your file.

Each page is rendered at 300 DPI, the resolution Tesseract is trained for, then converted to greyscale with contrast normalised. Automatic script detection runs per scanned page, so a document can include different writing systems. A searchable text layer is written invisibly behind the original page image, so the document looks unchanged but is fully searchable.

Where it stops: Handwriting is not reliably recognised; this is built for printed and typed text. Very short snippets can fall back to English because script detection needs a reasonable amount of text, so set the language manually for a page with only a few words.

What this tool includes

Everything you need, without a paywall.

Free Pro batch queue included
Invisible text layer over the untouched scan
100+ OCR languages with automatic detection
Auto-rotate, deskew and clean-up before reading
Confidence-scored retries on difficult pages
Skips pages that already have real text
hOCR, ALTO, TSV and JSON word data
Questions

Common questions.

Which languages are supported?

Over 100, covering every major writing system: Latin, Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Devanagari, Tamil, Thai, Amharic and many more. You can also combine languages for a mixed document.

Do I have to choose the language?

No. The script is detected from the page and the matching language is used. Choose manually if your document is very short, or if it mixes scripts and you want a specific combination.

Will the document still look the same?

Yes. The recognised text is added as an invisible layer behind the original page image, so the appearance is unchanged but the text is searchable and selectable.

Why is my OCR result poor?

Almost always input quality. Straighten the page with Deskew PDF first, scan at 300 DPI or higher, and make sure the contrast is good. A crooked or low-resolution scan limits any OCR engine.

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