How to Extract Text From a Scanned PDF
Quick answer: Open OCR PDF, drop your scan, choose Text only as the output, and download a plain-text file with everything the engine could read.
A scanned PDF is really just a photo of a page — there's no text underneath to select or copy, even though it looks like a normal document. If you need the actual words (to paste into an email, search, or edit), you need OCR to pull the text out.
How to Extract Text From a Scan
- Open OCR PDF in your browser.
- Drop your scanned PDF onto the page.
- Select the document's language for better accuracy.
- Choose Text only as the output.
- Click Run OCR and download the resulting .txt file.
If you'd rather keep the original look of the document and just make it searchable/selectable, choose Searchable PDF instead — it overlays the recognized text invisibly on top of the original scan.
Getting the Best Results
- Scan at 300 DPI or higher — low-resolution scans produce more recognition errors.
- Even lighting, flat pages — shadows and curled pages confuse the recognizer.
- Pick the right language — this narrows the character set the engine looks for.
- Proofread the output — OCR is very good but not perfect, especially on handwriting or damaged originals.
Frequently Asked Questions
Clean printed text typically comes out 99%+ accurate. Handwriting, low-quality scans, and unusual fonts reduce accuracy — always give the output a read-through.
It can, but accuracy is much lower than printed text — expect to correct more of the output for handwriting.
No. Recognition runs entirely in your browser — your scan never leaves your device.