What is PDF/A? PDF/A-1b vs 2b vs 3b explained, and how to convert to it
PDF/A is the archive version of PDF that courts, universities and portals ask for. Learn what 1b, 2b and 3b mean and convert a PDF to PDF/A for free.
15 min readRead more โ
๐ Files never leave your device
OCR PDF โ Make Scanned PDFs Searchable
Recognise the text in scanned pages and add it as an invisible layer, so you can search, select and copy it. Free, in 23 languages, privately in your browser.
๐
Drop a scanned PDF here
or click to browse your files
23 languagesยทNo uploadยทNo watermark
Opening PDFโฆ
๐ ยท
Workingโฆ
โ
Your searchable PDF has been downloaded.
The first run downloads the OCR engine and the language data (about 2โ4 MB per language) from a public CDN; your browser keeps them for next time. Your PDF itself is never uploaded.
How do I make a scanned PDF searchable for free?
Open PDFChai’s free OCR PDF tool, drop in your scanned PDF, choose the language of the document and click Make PDF searchable. Each scanned page is read by the Tesseract OCR engine inside your browser, and the recognised words are added as an invisible text layer exactly over the printed words. The pages look the same, but you can now search, select and copy the text, and other tools such as PDF to Word can read it. It works in 23 languages, including Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil and Bengali, and the PDF is never uploaded.
PDFChai OCR PDF vs Other Online OCR Tools
| Feature | PDFChai | Typical Online OCR Tools |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free with no page limit | Often a paid or premium-only feature |
| Privacy | Recognised in your browser — PDF never uploaded | Scans uploaded to a server for processing |
| Signup | Not needed | Account usually required |
| Indian languages | Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Urdu | Often English and European languages only |
| Original pages | Unchanged — text added as an invisible layer | Some re-compress or rebuild the pages |
| Recognised text | Shown to copy or save as .txt | Usually only inside the PDF |
Comparison reflects common online OCR services as of 2026 and varies by provider. OCR accuracy depends on scan quality; handwriting is not supported.
What is OCR PDF?
OCR (optical character recognition) reads the letters in a picture and turns them into real text. A scanned PDF, or a PDF made from phone photos, is really a stack of images: you can see the words, but a computer can't. You can't search it with Ctrl+F, you can't select a sentence to copy, screen readers can't read it aloud, and converters like PDF to Word find nothing inside. Running OCR on the PDF fixes all of that.
PDFChai renders each scanned page at about 300 dpi and passes it to Tesseract, the open-source OCR engine originally developed at HP and later by Google, running inside your browser as WebAssembly. Tesseract finds the lines and words on the page, recognises the characters with a neural network, and places every word exactly where it appears in the scan. Those words are added to your PDF as an invisible text layer on top of the original image. The pages look exactly as before, but now they can be searched, selected and copied.
Because recognition happens on your device, your scans never leave your computer or phone, which matters for ID cards, bank documents, contracts and medical records. Only the OCR engine and the language data are downloaded the first time, and your browser keeps them for next time. You can recognise 23 languages, including Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi and Urdu, and add English for documents that mix scripts.
โก Quick Answer:
- Open debugspot.com/ocr-pdf
- Drop your scanned PDF onto the box
- Choose the language of the document
- Click Make PDF searchable
- The searchable PDF downloads; copy or save the text if you need it
100% free ยท No signup ยท No watermark ยท Files stay on your device
Step-by-Step Guide
Everything you need to know โ done in under a minute.
1
Choose your scanned PDF
Drag the PDF onto the drop zone or click to pick it. The tool checks every page and tells you how many look scanned. Pages that already have selectable text are skipped by default so their text isn't doubled. Password-protected PDFs need Unlock PDF first.
2
Pick the language
Choose the main language of the document, such as English, Hindi or Gujarati. For documents that mix a regional language with English words, keep โAlso recognise English wordsโ ticked. The language data downloads once and is then reused.
3
Run OCR
Click Make PDF searchable. Each page is rendered and recognised in turn, with a progress bar. A typical page takes a few seconds on a laptop and a little longer on a phone; on multi-core computers two pages are processed at once.
4
Download and check
The searchable PDF downloads automatically. Open it and press Ctrl+F to search, or select a few words to copy them. The recognised text is also shown on the page, where you can copy it or save it as a .txt file.
How Does It Work?
Understanding what happens behind the scenes helps you trust the tool โ especially with confidential files.
๐จ๏ธ Rendering the scan
pdf.js draws each scanned page at about 300 dpi, the resolution OCR engines are designed for. Very large pages are capped so they fit in the memory of a phone.
๐ง Recognising the text
Tesseract's LSTM neural network reads each line of characters. It reports every word with its position on the page and a confidence score, and the average confidence is shown when it finishes.
๐ซฅ An invisible text layer
The words are written into a PDF layer that is never drawn on screen or on paper, using a special font that works for any script. pdf-lib places this layer exactly over each original page, and pages turned sideways with PDF rotation are handled too.
๐ Done on your device
The engine runs as WebAssembly in your browser tab. The PDF, the page images and the recognised text never travel to a server, and closing the tab clears everything.
Key Features & Advantages
๐
Searchable & selectable
Find any word with Ctrl+F and copy text straight out of a scanned document, in any PDF viewer.
๐ผ๏ธ
Pages stay the same
The scans are not re-compressed, cropped or redrawn. Only an invisible text layer is added.
๐ฎ๐ณ
Indian languages
Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi and Urdu, plus 12 more languages.
โญ๏ธ
Smart page skipping
Pages that already have real text are left alone, so mixed PDFs don't end up with doubled text.
๐
Text you can reuse
Copy the recognised text in one click or save it as a .txt file, handy for notes, emails or translation.
๐
Free and private
No signup, no page limit and no upload. Many other services keep OCR for paying customers only.
Who Uses This Tool?
This is one of the most common document tasks in work, study and everyday life. Here are the people who use it every day.
๐ข Offices & admin teams
Make scanned invoices, contracts and letters searchable so documents can be found by name, number or date.
โ๏ธ Lawyers & CAs
Search through scanned agreements, court orders, notices and tax papers instead of reading page by page.
๐ Students & researchers
Turn scanned book chapters, old papers and photocopied notes into text you can search, quote and cite.
๐๏ธ Government & records offices
Digitise land records, certificates and circulars in Hindi, Gujarati and other regional languages.
โฟ People using screen readers
OCR gives assistive technology real text to read aloud from a scanned document.
๐ Anyone with paper at home
Scan bills, warranties and school documents with your phone and make them findable later.
Common Use Cases
The everyday situations that bring people to this tool.
๐ Finding a clause in a scanned contract
Search for a word or name across dozens of scanned pages in seconds.
๐ Converting a scan to Word or Excel
Run OCR first, then use PDF to Word or PDF to Excel on the searchable copy.
๐๏ธ Building a searchable archive
Desktop search and cloud drives can index the text in OCR'd PDFs, so old scans show up in search results.
โ๏ธ Copying a paragraph from a scan
Select and copy text from a scanned book or report instead of retyping it.
๐ Translating a scanned letter
Copy the recognised Hindi, Gujarati or English text into a translator.
๐ฑ Making phone scans useful
Photos turned into a PDF with JPG to PDF become searchable after OCR.
How to Use It on Any Device
Works on every platform, right in the browser. Here are instructions for the most common devices.
๐ช How to OCR a PDF on Windows
Open Chrome, Edge or Firefox, go to debugspot.com/ocr-pdf, drop in your scan and choose the language. Multi-core PCs recognise two pages at once.
Works on: Windows 10, 11 ยท Chrome, Edge, Firefox
๐ How to OCR a PDF on Mac
Use Safari, Chrome or Firefox. The searchable PDF opens in Preview, where you can search and select the text.
Works on: macOS ยท Safari, Chrome, Firefox
๐ค How to OCR a PDF on Android
In Chrome, pick the scan from Files or Google Drive. Keep the page range small on older phones for the quickest result.
Works on: Android 9+ ยท Chrome
๐ฑ How to OCR a PDF on iPhone / iPad
In Safari, tap the drop zone and choose the PDF from the Files app, then save the searchable copy back to Files.
Works on: iOS 15+ ยท Safari, Chrome
๐ป How to OCR a PDF on Chromebook
It runs in Chrome with nothing to install, which suits school and office Chromebooks.
Works on: All Chromebooks ยท Chrome
Tips & Best Practices
โ Scan straight and sharp
OCR is most accurate on upright, in-focus pages at 300 dpi. Rotate sideways pages first with Rotate PDF.
โ Pick the right language
Recognition uses language-specific data. Choosing Hindi for a Hindi document matters far more than any other setting.
โ Keep English on for mixed documents
Indian documents often mix the regional script with English names, numbers and headings. Leave โAlso recognise English wordsโ ticked.
โ Use a page range for long scans
On phones, recognise a few pages at a time with the Pages box, then add the downloaded copy again and run the next pages. Pages that already have text are skipped.
โ Check the confidence score
An average below about 60% usually means a blurry, skewed or low-resolution scan. Rescanning gives a far better result than any setting.
โ Compress afterwards if needed
OCR adds only a little to the file size. If the scan itself is large, run Compress PDF on the searchable copy; the text layer is kept.
Full List of Benefits
โFree OCR with no page limit
โSearchable and selectable text in any PDF viewer
โOriginal scanned pages left unchanged
โ23 languages, including 10 Indian languages
โMixed-language documents with English added
โPages that already have text are skipped
โRotated pages handled correctly
โAverage confidence shown after recognition
โCopy the text or save it as .txt
โRuns entirely in your browser — the PDF is never uploaded
โTwo pages at once on multi-core computers
โWorks on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS and Chromebook
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is this OCR tool really free?
Yes. OCR is completely free on PDFChai, with no signup, no watermark and no limit on pages. Many other PDF services keep OCR for paid plans only.
Is my scanned PDF uploaded?
No. Recognition runs inside your browser using Tesseract compiled to WebAssembly. Only the OCR engine and the language data are downloaded from a public CDN the first time; your PDF and its text never leave your device.
Will OCR change how my PDF looks?
No. The scanned pages stay exactly as they were. The recognised words are added as an invisible layer that sits over the printed words, so search and selection line up with what you see.
Which languages can it recognise?
English, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Urdu, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Indonesian, Russian, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese and Korean. For a regional language you can also recognise English words on the same pages.
How accurate is it?
On clean, upright, printed scans at 300 dpi, accuracy is usually very high. Blurry photos, skewed pages, unusual fonts, low contrast and stamps over text reduce it. The average confidence shown after recognition gives you a quick indication.
Can it read handwriting?
Not reliably. Tesseract is designed for printed text. Neat block capitals sometimes work, but cursive handwriting usually doesn't.
Why does the first run take longer?
The first time, your browser downloads the OCR engine (about 4 MB) and the language data (about 1โ4 MB per language). They are kept in your browser's storage, so later runs start much faster.
What happens to pages that already have text?
By default they are skipped, because adding OCR text on top of real text would double every search result. Untick โSkip pages that already have textโ to recognise them anyway.
Can I then convert the scan to Word or Excel?
Yes. Run OCR first, then open the searchable PDF in PDF to Word, PDF to Excel or PDF to Text, which will now find the text.
Does OCR make the file bigger?
Only slightly. The text layer is small, usually a few kilobytes per page, and the scanned images are not touched.
Can I OCR a password-protected PDF?
Unlock it first with Unlock PDF using the password you know, then run OCR on the unlocked copy.
How long does it take?
A typical page takes a few seconds on a laptop and a bit longer on a phone. Long documents can take a few minutes, so a laptop or desktop is best for hundreds of pages.
Guides and tips
How to scan documents to PDF with your phone (no app needed)
Scan documents to PDF with your phone for free, no app needed. Pages are cropped, straightened and cleaned up automatically, and nothing is uploaded.
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How to redact a PDF properly (so hidden text can't be recovered)
Redact a PDF the right way for free. Find and remove names, phone numbers, PAN, Aadhaar and card numbers, or draw boxes, so the hidden text is truly gone.
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