Make a scanned PDF searchable (OCR)
Turn a scan into a PDF you can search and copy text from. The pages keep their look.
Drop your files here
or choose files from your device
Up to 1 file, 50 MB in total. Accepted: PDF.
PDF OCR: make scanned documents searchable
A scanned document is only a picture of text: you cannot search it, copy it or let a screen reader read it. PDF OCR (optical character recognition) adds an invisible text layer on top of the scan, so the page looks the same but the words become searchable and selectable. This tool runs PDF OCR for German and English texts.
Pages that already contain text are kept unchanged, so only scanned pages are processed. PDF OCR is helpful for archived letters, contracts, receipts and books. Good results need a sharp scan; very small, skewed or low-contrast pages are recognised less reliably. A document can have up to 20 pages per run; split longer files with our split tool first.
After PDF OCR you can search the file with any viewer, copy text from it or convert it to plain text or Markdown with our text tool. The recognition runs on our own servers in Germany with open-source software. Your file is held in memory only and deleted after the download, at the latest after an hour, and no external service ever sees it.
How it works
Add your PDF
Drop the scan onto the page or choose it from your device (up to 20 pages).
Choose the language
German, English or both. “German and English” suits most documents.
Download
You get a PDF with an invisible text layer. Pages that already contain text stay unchanged.
Questions and answers
How good is the text recognition?
Very good for clean scans in German or English. Skewed, blurry or handwritten originals are recognised less well.
How many pages can I process?
Up to 20 pages per run. Split larger documents first with “Split PDF”.
Does my PDF look different afterwards?
No. The page stays as an image and the recognised text sits invisibly on top. The file may get larger.
Are my files stored?
No. Your PDF is processed in memory on our servers in Germany and discarded afterwards.
How can I search and copy text in scanned invoices?
Make the invoice searchable with “Make PDF searchable” (text recognition in German and English, up to 20 pages). Afterwards searching and copying work in any PDF program.
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