Copy text from a scanned PDF
A scanned PDF is a set of pictures, so you can't select or copy a sentence from it. Retyping a letter, a page of a report or an old document takes far longer than recognising it.
PDF OCR recognises the words on each scanned page and adds an invisible text layer, so you can select and copy text in any PDF reader. You can also download all recognised text as a .txt file. Everything runs in your browser.
Example: a five-page scanned tenancy letter. After OCR you can search the PDF for the landlord's name or a date, and paste the clauses you need into an email.
OCR is recognition, not a perfect transcript. Clean, straight, high-contrast scans give the best results; handwriting, faint photocopies and unusual fonts produce errors. Always proofread names, numbers and dates you copy. Recognition is currently set up for English text. Pages that already contain real text are left unchanged.
Step by step
- Sign in and open PDF OCR.
- Add one scanned PDF (up to 25 MB and 30 pages).
- Run OCR and wait while each page is recognised in your browser.
- Download the searchable PDF to copy text from it, or download the .txt file.
Tips
- Fix sideways pages with Rotate PDF first; upright pages recognise better.
- For long documents, extract just the pages you need first.
- Need the text in Word? Paste it from the .txt file into a new document.
Questions
- Does the scan look different afterwards?
- No. The text layer is invisible; the pages keep their original appearance.
- Is my document uploaded?
- No. Neither the PDF nor its text leaves your device.
- Can it read handwriting?
- Handwriting is recognised poorly; it works best on printed text.
Related tools
Full guide: How to turn a scanned PDF into editable text