OCR PDF Online
Make scanned PDF pages searchable with browser-based OCR. Choose English or Hindi, process your pages, and download the searchable PDF.
Choose a scanned PDF
Select a PDF or drag it here. Maximum file size: 100 MB.
OCR Settings
How to OCR a PDF
1. Upload PDF
Select a scanned PDF or drag it into the upload box.
2. Choose language
Select English, Hindi, or both to match the document.
3. Run OCR
Start recognition and let your browser process each page.
4. Download
Save the generated searchable PDF to your device.
OCR PDF Features
Searchable output
Add recognized text to scanned PDF pages.
English and Hindi
Select a language model that fits your document.
Page selection
Process all pages or only the first page.
Browser processing
The PDF is processed in your browser by this page.
Related PDF Tools
OCR PDF FAQ
A Practical Guide to OCR PDF
A scanned PDF may look like a normal document, but its pages can actually be images. That means the words might not be searchable or selectable. OCR, short for Optical Character Recognition, examines the page image and identifies the letters and words it can recognize. This tool uses OCR to add a text layer to scanned pages, helping you search the resulting PDF and select recognized text.
📖What OCR can do
OCR is useful for scanned notes, printed forms, receipts, old records, and documents shared as page images. After recognition, you can use your PDF reader’s search feature to look for words in the document. Recognition does not recreate the original Word layout or turn every page element into an editable object. It adds machine-readable text associated with the scanned page.
⚙️How to use this tool
Choose a PDF from your device or drop it into the upload area. Select English, Hindi, or English + Hindi to match the document. Choose an OCR quality setting and decide whether to process the full PDF or just its first page. A higher render resolution can help with small print, though it can take more time and memory. Start the process and keep the page open while the browser reads the selected pages. When it finishes, download the searchable PDF.
✨Get clearer recognition
OCR usually works better on sharp, straight pages with clear contrast. Blurry scans, shadows, skewed pages, small print, handwriting, and decorative typefaces can lead to mistakes. Choose the language that matches the printed text; for pages containing both Hindi and English, try the combined option. On a long document, process the first page first to check whether your language and quality settings give a useful result.
🔍Check the searchable PDF
The output keeps a page image for its appearance and adds text recognized by OCR. Search and selection may work, but accuracy depends on the source scan. Tables, multiple columns, stamps, signatures, and unusual fonts can affect the recognized words or their order. Review important names, dates, numbers, and instructions against the original scanned page before relying on them.
🧰Choose a tool for your task
Use OCR when words are part of a scanned image. If you can already select the text in your PDF, try the PDF Text Extractor to copy it into a TXT file. To continue editing document content, visit PDF to Word. For spreadsheet-style information, explore PDF to Excel. You can also compress a PDF or merge PDF files.
🔒Privacy and processing
The OCR operation on this page runs in your browser rather than sending the PDF to a ZeroKB conversion server. The browser must download PDF.js, Tesseract.js, and the selected OCR language data from their CDNs, so an internet connection is needed. Processing large files or high-resolution pages may use considerable device memory and take longer, especially on a phone. If a file fails, try fewer pages or a smaller scan. Keep the original PDF until you have checked the output and confirmed it meets your needs.