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OCR PDF —
Make scanned PDFs searchable.

Add an invisible text layer to scanned or image-only PDFs so you can search, select, and copy text. Runs entirely in your browser using Tesseract OCR.

Drop files here

or click to browse

One PDF file

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How to make a PDF searchable

  1. Drop or select your scanned PDF.
  2. Choose the document language for better accuracy.
  3. Click Run OCR — each page is recognised locally.
  4. Download your searchable PDF.

Why PrivaPDF

  • No upload — scanned documents often contain sensitive content
  • Uses Tesseract OCR — the industry-standard open-source engine
  • Skips pages that already have selectable text
  • Invisible text layer preserves the original layout exactly
  • Supports 12 languages

FAQ

What does "OCR" mean?
Optical Character Recognition — software that reads text from an image or scanned document and makes it searchable and selectable.
Will the visual appearance of my PDF change?
No. The tool adds an invisible text layer behind the existing images. The PDF looks identical but text is now searchable and copyable.
Does this upload my PDF anywhere?
No. Rendering and recognition run entirely in your browser. Only the OCR language model (~4 MB) is fetched once from a CDN and then cached locally.
Which languages are supported?
English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese, and Arabic.
Why does it take a while?
OCR analyses each page as an image. A 10-page scanned PDF typically takes 20–60 seconds depending on your device.
My PDF already has text — what happens?
Pages that already contain a text layer are skipped; OCR only runs on truly image-only pages.
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