Turn scans into editable text
Photos and scanned PDF pages contain pixels rather than useful selectable text. OCR reads those pixels and returns editable text, confidence information and optional layout data.
TURN SCANS INTO USEFUL TEXT
Smart OCR for PDF & images
Recognize text from scans, photos and image-only PDFs with deskew, smart cleanup, confidence overlays and editable exports. Create searchable PDF, Word and text files without signup.
PDF + JPG / PNG / WebPMultiple languagesSearchable PDFEditable text
OCR StudioPrivate browser OCR with smart cleanup, confidence review and editable exports.
Add a scanned PDF, photo or screenshot
Choose one PDF (up to 40 pages) or up to 25 JPG, PNG or WebP images. Smart Accuracy can retry difficult pages; Precision Accuracy can compare up to three recognition passes when a page remains weak.
Your source file stays in this browser. OCR engine and language files load only when recognition starts.Ready
Password-protected PDFEnter the password you already know. The password is used only in this browser session.
01
Recognition strategy
Choose how much work the browser should do for difficult text.
Smart Accuracy keeps the better of up to two passes. Precision Accuracy can try a third preprocessing strategy on genuinely weak pages.
220 DPI — recommended
Use a focused character set only when the page truly contains mainly numbers or codes.
02
Scan cleanup
Improve tilted, faded or uneven scans before recognition.
03
Document languages
Select only languages actually present. The default Tesseract.js LSTM data is quality-oriented; extra languages increase download and OCR time.
Preparing OCR…
REVIEW BEFORE EXPORT
Check the image and recognized text together
Red boxes mark words below your chosen confidence threshold. OCR confidence is a useful warning signal, not proof that a word is correct.
0pages / images reviewed
0recognized words
—average OCR confidence
0lower-confidence tokens
Source / processed page
Recognized text
Export the reviewed result
Text edits are included in Word and TXT exports. The searchable PDF uses the OCR engine's positioned text layer, so review its search/select behaviour after download.
Accuracy check: Names, amounts, dates, account numbers and identity details should always be visually verified. OCR can still misread similar characters, unusual fonts, handwriting and complex tables.
Do not hide OCR uncertainty
The page list shows confidence and lower-confidence tokens. Correct important names, totals, dates and reference numbers before exporting.
Use the format you actually need
Create a searchable PDF, Word document, plain text or an OCR data ZIP containing page text, TSV, hOCR and a JSON summary where available.
Free OCR for scanned PDFs and images
Use OCR Studio when a scanned PDF cannot be searched, copied or indexed as text. PDF pages are rendered in the browser before recognition because the OCR library itself reads images rather than PDF files directly. Images can be processed as JPG, PNG or WebP.
How to get better OCR accuracy
Use the correct document language, choose a detailed render for small print, and select a layout mode that matches the page. Auto layout works well for ordinary pages; single-block mode suits simple paragraphs, while sparse-text mode can be useful for receipts, labels and scattered text. High-quality source images normally produce better recognition than blurred or heavily compressed screenshots.
Searchable PDF and existing text
When a PDF page already contains useful selectable text, the default setting can use that text instead of spending time on OCR. Scanned pages are rendered and recognized. The searchable PDF export uses the OCR engine's generated text layer where available. It should always be reviewed before replacing an original archive.
Privacy and browser processing
Your selected document is processed in the browser for this tool. The OCR runtime and language files are downloaded when needed, which means the first recognition in a language can take longer. The source document is not sent to a paid document-conversion service by this workflow.
Frequently asked questions
Is OCR PDF free without signup?
Yes. The included OCR, text review and export tools are available without an account. Browser resource limits still apply.
Can OCR make a scanned PDF searchable?
Yes, where the OCR engine provides a positioned PDF text layer. Review the generated PDF because character recognition can be wrong.
Which languages are available?
The interface includes English, Arabic, Hindi, Malayalam, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Turkish, Russian, Polish, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Japanese and Korean options. Selecting more than one language can increase loading and recognition time.
Can it read handwriting perfectly?
No. This workflow is intended mainly for printed text. Handwriting, decorative fonts, low-resolution scans and complex tables can reduce recognition accuracy.