What is OCR?
OCR (Optical Character Recognition) reads text from images. When you scan a document, the PDF contains an image of the text, not actual text characters. OCR converts those images back to searchable, copyable text.
OCR with PDFEdits
Go to OCR
Upload your scanned PDF
Select the language (English, Spanish, French, etc.)
Choose output: plain text or searchable PDF
Click Process & Download
Output Options
| Option | Result |
|--------|--------|
| Plain Text | .txt file with extracted text |
| Searchable PDF | Original PDF with invisible text layer |
Tips for Better OCR
Use high-resolution scans (300 DPI minimum)
Ensure good contrast (dark text on light background)
Deskew pages before OCR using Deskew PDF
Select the correct language for best accuracy
Supported Languages
English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi, and more.
Related Tools
Extract Text — for digital PDFs (no OCR needed)
Deskew PDF — straighten pages before OCR
PDF to Text — extract from digital PDFs