What is OCR?
OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. It's technology that "reads" text from images and converts it into actual text characters you can edit, copy, and search.
When Do You Need OCR?
You need OCR when your PDF contains:
- Scanned paper documents
- Photos of text (whiteboards, signs, book pages)
- Image-based PDFs that were created from scanners
- PDFs where you can't select or copy text
How to Use OCR on Your PDFs
- Open our OCR PDF tool
- Upload your scanned PDF
- Select your language: Choose the language of the text in your document for best accuracy
- Process: The OCR engine analyzes the document
- Download: Get your searchable, editable PDF
Tips for Better OCR Results
Image Quality Matters
- Resolution: Scan at 300 DPI minimum
- Contrast: Ensure good contrast between text and background
- Alignment: Straighten crooked scans
- Clarity: Avoid blurry or smudged documents
Document Preparation
- Clean the scanner glass
- Use flat, unwrinkled paper
- Ensure consistent lighting
- Remove staples or bindings that create shadows
OCR Limitations
OCR isn't perfect. It may struggle with:
- Handwritten text (works best with typed text)
- Unusual fonts or decorative text
- Very small text (under 10pt)
- Text on colored or patterned backgrounds
- Poor quality copies or faxes
After OCR: What Next?
Once you have searchable text, you can:
- Use PDF to Text to extract just the text content
- Convert to Word format for editing
- Search within the document using Ctrl+F
- Copy and paste text to other applications