🔍 OCR PDF

Make scanned PDFs searchable

Use optical character recognition (OCR) to add a searchable text layer to scanned PDFs. Select and copy text from any image-based document. Free, powered by Tesseract.

TesseractOCR engine
100%Free
NoSign-up needed

PdfDocShift › OCR PDF

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🔒 Files auto-deleted after 2h
🔑 256-bit SSL encryption
🚀 No software to install
✅ No account required

Make scanned PDFs searchable and copy-able

Scanned PDFs are just images — you cannot search, select or copy any text. PdfDocShift uses Tesseract OCR, the most widely used open-source OCR engine, to analyse each page and add an invisible, searchable text layer. The result is a fully searchable PDF that looks identical to the original.

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Tesseract OCR engine Powered by Tesseract — the open-source OCR engine maintained by Google, trusted in production worldwide.
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Multi-language Supports English, German, French and Spanish — with high accuracy for printed text.
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Invisible text layer Text is added as a transparent layer — the visual appearance of the PDF does not change.
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Secure processing Pages are processed in an isolated container and deleted after 2 hours.
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Searchable archives
Make scanned document archives searchable in your document management system.
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Copy & paste text
Extract quotes, data or passages from scanned reports without retyping.
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Accessibility
OCR-processed PDFs work with screen readers, making them accessible.
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100% free
No sign-up, no Acrobat licence, supports multi-page documents.
All 20 Free PDF Tools

More PDF tools, all free

Every PDF operation you need — one click away.

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Compress PDF
Reduce PDF file size without losing quality. Choose low, medium or high compression.
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Split PDF
Split a PDF into separate pages or extract a custom page range.
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Merge PDF
Combine multiple PDF files into one document.
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Word to PDF
Convert Word documents (.docx, .doc) to PDF.
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PDF to Word
Convert PDF to editable Word document (.docx).
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PowerPoint to PDF
Convert PowerPoint presentations (.pptx, .ppt) to PDF.
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PDF to PowerPoint
Convert PDF pages into editable PowerPoint slides.
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Excel to PDF
Convert Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx, .xls) to PDF.
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PDF to Excel
Extract tables and data from PDF into Excel.
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Image to PDF
Convert JPG, PNG, WEBP, HEIC or GIF images to PDF.
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PDF to Image
Export PDF pages as high-resolution JPG or PNG images.
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Protect PDF
Add password protection to your PDF with strong encryption.
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Watermark PDF
Add a custom text watermark to every page.
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OCR PDF
Make scanned PDFs searchable using optical character recognition.
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Rotate PDF Pages
Rotate pages by 90°, 180° or 270°. Fix sideways scans.
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Unlock PDF
Remove password protection from PDFs you own.
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Sign PDF
Add your signature to any PDF document. Type, draw or upload.
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Page Numbers PDF
Add page numbers to your PDF with custom format and position.
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Crop PDF
Remove margins and crop PDF pages with mm precision.
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Translate PDF
Translate PDF content into another language automatically.
Process

Three steps, done

No sign-up required. Files are encrypted in transit and auto-deleted after 2 hours.

STEP 01
Upload Your File
Drag & drop or browse. Files go directly to encrypted cloud storage.
STEP 02
Choose a Tool
Select the operation — compress, convert, split, merge, protect and more.
STEP 03
Convert & Download
Processing takes 5–30 seconds. Download your file instantly — no account needed.
STEP 04
Auto-Deleted
Files are permanently deleted from our servers after 2 hours. Your privacy is guaranteed.
Help & FAQ

OCR PDF questions

Everything you need to know about using OCR PDF online for free.

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) reads text from images and adds a searchable text layer to your PDF. Scanned PDFs are just images — after OCR you can search, copy and edit the text.

PdfDocShift's OCR tool supports English, German, French and Spanish. The OCR engine (Tesseract) automatically detects text regardless of language, but accuracy is best for the supported languages.

OCR time depends on the number of pages and scan quality. A typical 10-page scanned document completes in 15–30 seconds. Very large documents (100+ pages) may take up to 2 minutes.

No. OCR adds an invisible text layer beneath the existing page images. The visual appearance of each page remains exactly the same — only searchability and text selection are added.