Guide

How to make a scanned PDF searchable

What searchable means

The page is re-rendered from your scan and may change in quality or size. Behind the image there is invisible text in the same place as each word. That is why Ctrl+F finds words and you can select and copy them.

Steps

Open the OCR Toolkit, add the scanned PDF, choose the language and read the text. Then choose Download searchable PDF. Multi-page files stay in order.

Check it

Open the new PDF and search for a word you know is on page 3. If it is found and highlighted over the right place, the text layer works.

File size

The new file is usually larger than the scan, because each page is stored as a picture again. Do not use image-based PDF compression after OCR if you need searchability: it removes the text layer. Keep your original and review the new PDF.

Limits

Poor scans give poor text. Right-to-left searchable PDFs can copy letters or numbers in the wrong order. Check search and copy in your PDF viewer; use the reviewed text download when reusing the text. The free version reads up to 5 pages per run. The planned pack removes that software cap, subject to browser memory.

Open the free OCR Toolkit

The offline pack is still being tested and is not yet on sale.