OCR a Scan
Runs a local OCR engine in your browser to recognise text in scanned documents. Supports ten languages. Slower on big files, but private and free.
Drag & drop your files
or click to choose from your device
One scanned PDF. The OCR model runs locally in your browser.
OCR (optical character recognition) reads the text inside scanned PDFs and images and turns it into real, selectable, copyable text — rescuing words that are otherwise locked inside a picture.
How to ocr a scan
- 1
Add a scanned PDF or image
Drop in the scan or photo of a document you want to read.
- 2
Run OCR
The engine analyses the page and recognises the characters. It runs locally, so larger scans take a little time.
- 3
Copy or download the text
Save the recognised text or copy it straight into another app.
Everything runs in your browser. Your file is never uploaded — there’s no server to send it to, no sign-up, and nothing to delete afterward.
Frequently asked questions
- How is OCR different from Extract Text?
- Extract Text only works when a PDF already contains real text. OCR works on images and scans — it actually looks at the picture and figures out what the letters say.
- Which languages are supported?
- The engine recognises English and many Latin-script languages. Clear, high-contrast scans give the best accuracy.
- Why does OCR take longer than other tools?
- Recognising characters from an image is computationally heavy, and it all happens on your device rather than a fast server — the trade-off for keeping your scans private.
- How accurate is it?
- Very good on clean, straight, high-resolution scans; messier on low-quality faxes or handwriting. Higher-resolution input improves results.
- Are my scans uploaded for processing?
- No. OCR runs entirely in your browser using a local recognition engine, so even sensitive documents stay on your device.