PDF OCR & Searchable PDF Pro
A scanned PDF is a stack of photographs — Ctrl+F finds nothing in it. This reads the pages and writes the words back into the file as an invisible layer sitting exactly over the image. Free preview · Pro required to export. Recognise and copy the text of the first page free. Pro reads every page and downloads the searchable PDF and text.
Free preview · Pro required to export. Recognise and copy the text of the first page free. Pro reads every page and downloads the searchable PDF and text.
Why use this tool?
- Every tool that reads PDFs comes back empty on a scan, because there genuinely is no text in the file.
- The page should still look identical afterwards — same scan, same signatures — and only gain the ability to be searched.
- Scans are contracts, medical letters, passports and old family papers. Uploading them to an unknown service to have them read is a poor trade.
How to use PDF OCR & Searchable PDF
- Drop the scanned PDF.
- Pick the language on the page — the wrong one is the commonest cause of poor results.
- Press the button and leave the tab open; recognition is genuinely slow.
- Download the searchable PDF, or just the extracted text.
Features
- Tesseract running as WebAssembly in your browser, with 15 languages
- An invisible text layer positioned word by word over the scan
- The original page image kept exactly as it was
- A plain-text download alongside the PDF
- A confidence score, so you know when a scan was too poor to trust
Tips
- Feed it the best scan you have. A crooked, low-contrast phone photo produces errors no setting can fix.
- Raise the recognition detail for small print; it is slower but noticeably more accurate.
- Once a scan is searchable, PDF to Excel can read tables out of it.
Frequently asked questions
Will the document still look the same?
Yes. The page image is untouched — the recognised words are added as a layer with zero opacity, positioned over the words in the picture. You see the scan; a search sees the text.
Why is it so slow?
Because the recognition is really happening on your machine rather than on a server. That is the trade for the document never being uploaded, and it means thirty pages takes minutes rather than seconds.
How accurate is it?
On a clean 300dpi scan of printed text, very. On handwriting, poor contrast or a skewed photo, much less so — the confidence score tells you which you have.
Can I try this Pro tool without an account?
Yes. Recognise and copy the text of the first page free. Pro reads every page and downloads the searchable PDF and text. Your own input is processed locally in your browser.
Will upgrading keep my work?
Checkout and login open in a separate tab. Keep the workspace open to retain inputs, settings and previews. Files stay in that tab only; keep the originals in case you close or reload it. Export access is checked with the server after payment.
Your files are processed directly in your browser and are not uploaded to HubToolify's servers.