How to make a scanned PDF searchable with OCR

What is OCR?

OCR (optical character recognition) reads the letters in an image and turns them into real text. Helpdf then adds this text as an invisible layer behind the image: the page looks exactly the same, but you can now search, select and copy its content.

Make a PDF searchable in three steps

Open OCR PDF and select your scanned PDF or a photo.
Choose the language of the document (English, French, Spanish, Arabic, German…).
Click Recognize text and download the searchable PDF.

OCR PDFTurn scans into searchable, copyable PDFs.

Open the free tool

The first time, your browser downloads the recognition model for the chosen language (a few megabytes). Your document itself is still processed on your device.

Getting the best recognition

A clear, well-lit scan gives the best results; blurry photos reduce accuracy.
Choose the right language: accents and special characters depend on it.
Printed text is recognized very well; handwriting is much harder.

What can you do next?

Search the document with Ctrl+F (or Cmd+F).
Copy a paragraph into an email.
Convert it to an editable document with PDF to Word.
Extract all the text with PDF to Text.

Scanning from your phone?

Use Scan to PDF to capture clean pages, then run OCR on the result.

Frequently asked questions

Does OCR change the look of my document?

No. The text layer is invisible; the pages look exactly the same.

Which languages are supported?

English, French, Spanish, Arabic, German, Italian and Portuguese.

Is my document uploaded for OCR?

No. Recognition runs in your browser; only the language model is downloaded.