Scanned PDF to Text (OCR)
Turn a scanned PDF into text you can copy, edit, and search. Your PDF never leaves your device.
Choose every language on the page, up to 3. The first run downloads about of language data; after that it’s instant.
Tips for better results
- Take photos straight on, in good light, with the text filling the frame.
- Crop away anything that isn’t text.
- Printed and typed text works best. Handwriting usually doesn’t.
iPhone HEIC photo? Turn it into a JPG first with the HEIC to JPG converter.
Click to choose a PDF, or drop it here
Or paste a screenshot with Ctrl + V · JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, PDF
Reading…
No text was found. Check the language, or try a sharper, larger image.
Low confidence: check the language setting, or try a sharper image.
About Scanned PDF to Text (OCR)
A scanned PDF is just pictures of pages, so you can’t select or search the words. Drop the PDF in and each page is read in turn. Pages that already contain real text are copied exactly, with no OCR needed, so mixed PDFs come out as clean as possible. Long PDFs take a few seconds per scanned page.
More OCR pages
About the Image to Text (OCR)
The image to text converter (OCR, optical character recognition) reads the words in a picture and gives them back as text you can copy, edit, and search. It works on photos of documents, screenshots, receipts, and scanned PDFs, in English and more than 25 other languages including Bangla, Hindi, Arabic, and Urdu.
How to use it
- 1 Pick the language of the text. Choose two if the page mixes languages.
- 2 Drop in images or a PDF, click to choose them, or paste a screenshot with Ctrl+V.
- 3 Copy the text, or download it as a .txt file.
Frequently asked questions
Are my images uploaded?
No. The text is read in your browser, so your images and documents never leave your device. Only the free OCR engine and the language data are downloaded the first time, then your browser keeps them.
Which languages can it read?
English, Bangla, Hindi, Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Nepali, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Indonesian, Malay, Vietnamese, and Thai. Pick up to three at once for mixed pages.
Can it read Bangla?
Yes. Choose Bangla (it is preselected on the Bangla OCR page) and printed বাংলা comes out as Unicode text you can paste into Word, Google Docs, or Facebook.
Can it read handwriting?
Not reliably. It is built for printed and typed text. Very neat block capitals sometimes work, but joined-up handwriting usually doesn’t.
How do I get the best results?
Use a sharp, well-lit image taken straight on, with the text filling most of the picture. Crop away anything that isn’t text and choose the right language. Small images are enlarged automatically before reading.
Can it read a scanned PDF?
Yes. Pages that already contain text are copied exactly, and scanned pages are read with OCR, one page at a time.
Is it free?
Yes, with no sign-up, no watermark, and no limit on the number of images.
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