Free PDF tool
English OCR for Scanned PDF Files
Make English scanned PDF pages searchable and selectable. Choose a page range and follow live OCR progress with estimated time remaining.
Use OCR PDF free →No signup required · Everyday files are processed in your browserSimple and focused
OCR PDF without installing software
Recognize English text in scanned documents while keeping unselected pages in the output. Processing can take time on large PDFs, so the tool shows page progress and an estimated time left.
Use OCR when English words are visible in a scan but cannot be selected or found with search. It creates a text layer so other tools can extract recognized words. A scan that is already searchable may not need another OCR pass.
Before you start
Rotate sideways pages first and check that the source is legible. Test one representative page before committing to a long document. Choose page positions such as 2, 5-7; unselected pages remain in the output.
How it works
Finish in three steps
Choose a scanned PDF.
Select all pages or enter an OCR page range.
Follow the progress, then download the searchable PDF.
Built for everyday PDFs
What this tool gives you
- ✓English OCR with page-range selection
- ✓Live page progress and estimated time left
- ✓Unselected pages remain in the PDF
Practical example
Try recognition on a non-private scan
- Download the English scan practice file from Guides.
- Run OCR on page 1 and wait for the final PDF, not just the recognition percentage.
- Open the output and search for BLUE FOLDER, then copy the sentence containing the number 4827.
The output should allow searching and copying the printed English text. Compare the recognized number with the visible scan; OCR can make mistakes.
Capabilities and limits
- Recognition supports English only. The site's interface language does not change the OCR language.
- Handwriting, skew, blur, tiny type, columns, or complex tables can produce errors. OCR is not guaranteed transcription.
- Processing time depends on page images and device performance. The estimate updates from completed work and can change; the final PDF still needs to be built.
When the result is unexpected
It stays in preparation for a while
First use downloads the recognition engine and English language data. Check connectivity and allow the tab to remain open.
A large file takes too long
Try a smaller page range on the original. Close memory-heavy tabs and avoid starting several OCR jobs at once.
Check the downloaded file
Search an unusual phrase and inspect copied dates, amounts, and reference numbers. Keep the scan as the visual source of truth and correct extracted text before relying on it.
Questions
OCR PDF FAQ
Which OCR languages are supported?
The current OCR tool supports English only. Other languages may be inaccurate or omitted.
Can I OCR only part of a large PDF?
Yes. Enter individual pages and ranges to reduce processing time while preserving the other pages.
Ready to work on your PDF?
Open OCR PDF, choose your file, and download the result.
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