OCR PDF: a practical guide
A scan looks like a document but behaves like a photograph: the words are shapes, not text. OCR reads those shapes and writes a text layer on top of the page, invisible in normal reading but available to search, selection and screen readers. Use it on files that came from a scanner or a camera.
A scan looks like a document but behaves like a photograph: the words are shapes, not text. OCR reads those shapes and writes a text layer on top of the page, invisible in normal reading but available to search, selection and screen readers. Use it on files that came from a scanner or a camera. A PDF exported from Word or Google Docs already has real text, and running OCR on it adds nothing.
How to use it: Choose the scanned PDF. Then Select the document language for better accuracy. Then Click "Run OCR". Then Save the searchable PDF..
Turns scans into searchable documents. Invisible text layer added to original. Supports multiple languages. Keeps original images intact.
Try the tool
OCR PDF Online — Add a searchable text layer to a scanned PDF so you can select, copy and search words that were only pixels.