OCR PDF
Extract text from scanned or image-based PDFs.
Drop your file here, or browse
Scanned PDF — max 50 MB · takes 10–30 s
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How it works
- 1
Upload your scanned or image-based PDF
- 2
Tesseract OCR reads every page at 300 DPI
- 3
Download a .txt file with all extracted text
Features
- Powered by Tesseract, the industry-standard OCR engine
- 300 DPI page rendering for accuracy
- Works on scanned documents and image-based PDFs
- No signup required
- Files deleted immediately after processing
How to Make a Scanned PDF Searchable
Upload your scanned PDF to Papyrio. Tesseract reads every page as an image at 300 DPI and extracts the text it finds. Download a .txt file with the full content: searchable, copyable, and ready to paste into another document.
What OCR Actually Does
A scanned PDF is a picture of a page, not text. There's nothing to select, search, or copy. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) analyzes the image pixel by pixel and reconstructs the characters it recognizes, turning a flat image into usable text.
How Accurate Is OCR?
Accuracy depends almost entirely on scan quality. Clean, high-contrast scans at 300 DPI or higher produce very accurate results. Below 150 DPI, or with skewed, blurry, or low-contrast scans, error rates climb. Tesseract reads printed text only; handwriting isn't supported.
OCR vs PDF to Text: Which Do You Need?
If your PDF already has selectable text (you can click and highlight words in a normal PDF reader), it doesn't need OCR. Use PDF to Text instead for instant, accurate extraction. OCR only matters when the PDF is a scan or photo with no underlying text layer.
Already have a digital PDF? Try PDF to TextWhat Affects OCR Quality
Resolution matters most: scan at 300 DPI or higher whenever possible. Page skew (slight rotation from the scanner) also hurts accuracy; most scanners have a deskew option worth enabling before you scan. OCR PDF currently supports English text.
What to Do After Running OCR
Once you have the extracted text, paste it into a Word document to reformat it, or use the original scanned PDF for a fully editable conversion if the scan quality was high enough.
Convert the scan to an editable Word fileWant to edit the extracted text in Word? Convert to Word after OCR
Need to translate the scanned document? Translate PDF supports 25+ languages
Just need the plain text? PDF to Text is faster for digital PDFs
Frequently asked questions
What languages are supported?
Currently English. Multi-language OCR is on our roadmap.
How long does it take?
Roughly 2–3 seconds per page. A 10-page document takes 20–30 seconds.
Do I need to sign up?
No account required. Guests get 3 conversions a day; free accounts get 10.
Is my file safe?
Your PDF is processed in memory and deleted the moment the text file is returned. Nothing is stored.