FilePDQHow to make a scanned PDF searchable
Quick answer
Open Searchable PDF (OCR), add the scan and select Make searchable. The text is read on your device and added invisibly over each page, so the pages look the same but you can now search and copy them.
Searchable PDF (OCR)Free, no sign-up, and your files never leave your device.
Open the toolStep by step
- Open Searchable PDF (OCR) and add the scanned PDF.
- Select Make searchable. Each page takes a few seconds; the first run also loads the text reader.
- Download the searchable copy and try searching it for a word you can see on the page.
What OCR does
A scan is a picture of a page, so a computer sees dots, not letters. OCR (optical character recognition) looks at the picture and works out which letters are there.
The recognised words are placed exactly over the printed ones, so search results highlight the right place and you can select text as normal.
Tips
- Scan at 300 dpi in black and white or greyscale for the best results.
- Keep pages straight. A page photographed at an angle reads much worse than a flat scan.
- OCR can mix up similar characters, such as 0 and O or 1 and l. Check names, numbers and amounts that matter.
If something goes wrong
It says every page already has text.
The PDF is already searchable. If the existing text is wrong, tick Read every page to read it again.
Some words came out wrong.
Try a sharper, straighter scan. Handwriting and languages other than English are not read reliably.