OCR (Optical Character Recognition) converts scanned PDFs — which are image-based and unsearchable — into real text you can copy, search, and edit. It works by analyzing the visual patterns in each page image and matching them to known characters.

PDF OCR — Extract Text from Scanned PDF Free

How to PDF OCR

Upload your scanned PDF by clicking "Select PDF" or dragging it into the upload area.

Wait while the OCR engine processes each page locally in your browser — no upload required.

Preview the extracted text and verify the results look correct.

Click "Download .txt" to save the extracted text to your device.

About PDF OCR

Extract Text from Any Scanned PDF

Scanned PDFs are essentially images — you cannot copy text, search within them, or edit them. Our free PDF OCR tool solves this by running Optical Character Recognition directly in your browser, converting every page into real, usable text.

How It Works

PDFMerger.io uses Tesseract.js, the leading open-source OCR engine compiled to WebAssembly. When you upload a scanned PDF:

Each page is rendered to a high-resolution image at 2× scale inside your browser
Tesseract.js analyzes the image pixel-by-pixel, identifying letters, words, and lines
The recognized text from all pages is assembled into a single .txt file
You download the result directly — no server involved at any step

When to Use PDF OCR

Scanned contracts or invoices — make them searchable and copy-paste friendly
Digitized books or articles — extract text for editing or archiving
Photographed receipts — get the text content without manual typing
Old documents — recover text from documents created before digital workflows

Privacy First

Unlike cloud OCR services that require you to upload sensitive documents to remote servers, PDFMerger.io processes everything locally in your browser tab. Your files are never transmitted, stored, or seen by anyone.

Frequently Asked Questions

QWhat is PDF OCR?

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) converts scanned PDFs — which are image-based and unsearchable — into real text you can copy, search, and edit.

QDoes this tool upload my PDF to a server?

No. The OCR processing runs entirely in your browser using Tesseract.js, a WebAssembly-based OCR engine. Your file never leaves your device.

QHow accurate is the OCR?

Accuracy depends on scan quality. High-resolution scans of printed documents typically achieve 95%+ accuracy. Low-quality phone photos or handwritten text will be less accurate.

QWhat languages does the OCR support?

The OCR tool supports 13 languages including English, Hebrew, Arabic, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Turkish, Japanese, and Russian. Select the document language before running OCR for best accuracy.

PDF OCR — Extract Text from Scanned PDFs Free

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