Make scanned PDF documents searchable. Extract text from images and scanned pages using optical character recognition.
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← Explore Available ToolsSelect a scanned PDF or image-based document. PDFably will analyze each page for text content.
Advanced optical character recognition technology identifies and extracts text from your scanned pages.
Get a fully searchable PDF where you can find, select, and copy text from previously unsearchable scanned pages.
Scanned documents are essentially images — you can see the text but can't search, select, or copy it. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) changes that by converting image-based text into actual digital text.
PDFably's OCR tool processes your scanned PDFs and creates a searchable text layer over the original pages. The visual appearance stays the same, but now you can search for words, select text, and copy content.
Offices digitize paper archives to make them searchable. Legal teams convert scanned contracts and court documents into searchable files. Researchers extract text from scanned academic papers and historical documents.
For personal use, OCR helps make scanned tax documents searchable, digitize old letters and records, and extract text from photograph-based PDFs.
PDFably's OCR supports most major languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and many more.
Accuracy depends on the quality of the scanned document. Clear, high-resolution scans typically achieve 95%+ accuracy.
No. OCR adds an invisible text layer behind the original page images. The visual appearance remains identical.
OCR works best with printed text. Handwritten text recognition is limited and depends on legibility.
Processing time depends on the number of pages and complexity. Most documents are processed within a few seconds per page.