Scan, OCR & extraction
OCR PDF
Make a scanned PDF searchable and copyable: the text is recognised page by page in your browser (Arabic included) and added, invisible, to your original PDF. Nothing is uploaded.
How to use this tool
- 1
Drop your scanned PDF (100 MB maximum).
- 2
Tick the text language, then choose the pages and the resolution if needed.
- 3
Click “Recognise text” and follow the progress, page by page.
- 4
Proofread the text, then download the .txt or the searchable PDF.
Help
- For a PDF whose pages are images (scanner, photo, fax): the tool reads them page by page and gives you a .txt and a searchable PDF where Ctrl+F and text selection work.
- Your original pages are neither touched nor re-encoded: the recognised text is inserted on top, invisible. If the PDF already contains text, the tool tells you and can skip those pages.
- Pick one or more languages (French, English, Arabic, German, Dutch, Italian, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish), the pages and the reading resolution (150, 200 or 300 dpi). Up to 150 pages per run; you can cancel and resume. Each language is downloaded once from this site (1 to 3 MB), then kept on your device.
- Honest limits: OCR is slow (a few seconds per page), memory-hungry (files over 40 MB are discouraged on a phone, 100 MB maximum) and never perfect; handwriting and blurry scans give poor results. The searchable PDF carries Latin text only: Arabic is in the .txt. A protected PDF cannot be turned into a searchable PDF.
Frequently asked questions
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. The recognition engine and the language files are served by MaxyTools and then run in your browser; the PDF and the text stay on your device.
Are my original pages modified?
No. The searchable PDF is your original file with an invisible text layer added: the page images are neither re-encoded nor degraded, and the file size barely grows.
Why is recognition slow, and sometimes wrong?
The engine runs on your device's processor, page after page: count a few seconds per A4 page, more on a phone. It makes mistakes on blurry scans, small print and handwriting: proofread important figures.
Written and verified by the MaxyTools team · Updated on
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