Scan to Searchable PDF

Worked example

Example: turn an old faxed letter PDF into a searchable file so keyword search works in your document archive.

When to use this

• Digitizing paper files for search.
• Improving accessibility of scanned handouts.
• Preparing scans for PDF-to-Word conversion.

Common examples

• Phone photo scan of a receipt → searchable text export where you can copy line items after proofreading totals.
• Old faxed letter PDF → text extracted so keyword search works in document management systems.
• Multi-page handwritten notes scan → OCR quality depends on scan DPI; proofread before archiving.
• Five-page typed scan at 300 DPI → searchable PDF for keyword find in Preview.
• Historical newspaper clip scan → expect errors on faded serif fonts; proofread names.

Common mistakes

• OCR on skewed or shadowed phone photos.
• Not proofreading OCR on financial figures.
• Expecting perfect results on stamped or watermarked pages.

How it works

Upload a scanned or image-based PDF and extract readable text on your device. Each page is processed locally with browser OCR, recognized line by line, and combined into a downloadable .txt file. Text recognition accuracy depends on scan resolution, contrast, skew, and fonts—handwriting and low-DPI phone photos often need cleanup.

Limitations

Text recognition accuracy depends on scan quality, fonts, and language. Review extracted text before relying on it for legal, medical, or financial decisions.

Privacy and file handling

Your data stays on your device and is not uploaded.

Formula or method

OCR detects text regions per page, recognizes characters with a local engine, and outputs plain Unicode text in reading order. Multi-column layouts may interleave columns; split pages with Extract PDF Pages when structure matters. Output is plain text—not a reflowed PDF with a hidden text layer.