OCR PDF Online Free — Extract Text from Scanned PDFs
Extract text from scanned PDFs, image-based documents, and photos using OCR (Optical Character Recognition). Supports English, Chinese, Spanish, and 12+ languages. All processing stays in your browser.
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How to extract text from a scanned PDF with OCR
- Select your PDF. The file is read locally in your browser and never uploaded to PDF2atom.
- Choose the OCR language. Pick the language that matches your document's text. English is the default and works well for most Latin-alphabet documents.
- Start OCR. Each page is rendered as a high-resolution image and processed by Tesseract OCR. If the PDF already has selectable text, you can skip OCR and use the fast extraction path.
- Copy or download. Review the extracted text, copy it to your clipboard, or download a TXT file.
What OCR can and cannot do
OCR (Optical Character Recognition) reads text from images — it turns pictures of words into editable, searchable text. This is essential for scanned documents, faxed pages, photos of printed material, and PDFs created from camera captures.
OCR works best on: clear scans at 200+ DPI, clean printed text, standard fonts, high-contrast documents, and languages with Latin/Cyrillic/CJK character sets that Tesseract supports.
OCR struggles with: handwritten text, decorative or script fonts, low-resolution images, heavy background noise, skewed pages, and text over complex backgrounds. Results improve noticeably when scans are sharp and well-lit.
OCR vs. selectable text — dual-path extraction
This tool automatically checks whether your PDF already contains selectable text. If it does, you can use the instant text extraction path and skip the slower OCR engine entirely. If the PDF is image-only, OCR is the right path. This dual design means you never waste time running OCR on a digital-born PDF, but you always have OCR available when you need it.
Supported languages
Tesseract OCR supports 12+ languages including English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Russian, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Indonesian, Dutch, Thai, and Vietnamese. Select the primary language of your document for best accuracy. For multilingual documents, run OCR once per language and compare results.
Common uses for PDF OCR
- Convert scanned contracts, agreements, and legal documents into searchable text.
- Digitize printed books, articles, and research papers for search and citation.
- Extract data from scanned invoices, receipts, and forms.
- Make image-based government forms and applications editable.
- Prepare scanned documents for PDF to AI Prompt or PDF to Markdown conversion.
- Check document structure with PDF Page Counter before running OCR on large files.
Privacy & Security
Your PDF stays in your browser. OCR runs entirely on your device using Tesseract.js (compiled to WebAssembly). PDF2atom does not upload, store, inspect, or analyze your document or its extracted text. No server-side OCR, no API calls, no third-party text processing.
Frequently asked questions
Is my PDF uploaded when I run OCR?
No. OCR runs entirely in your browser using Tesseract.js compiled to WebAssembly. PDF2atom does not receive your PDF or the extracted text.
How long does OCR take?
Tesseract.js loads once (~4-6 seconds on first use), then each page takes about 5-20 seconds depending on content complexity and your device. A 5-page scan typically completes in under 2 minutes on a modern laptop.
Which languages does the OCR support?
Tesseract supports English, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Russian, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Indonesian, Dutch, Thai, and Vietnamese. Select the primary language that matches your document for best accuracy.
Can OCR read handwriting?
Tesseract is optimized for printed text. Handwriting recognition is limited and often produces unreliable results. Clear, machine-printed text in standard fonts works best.
What if my PDF already has selectable text?
This tool detects selectable text automatically and offers a fast extraction path that skips OCR entirely. You can still run full OCR if you prefer — for example, when the selectable text has encoding issues or incorrect characters.
Does OCR work on password-protected PDFs?
Fully password-locked PDFs must be unlocked first using the password you know. PDF2atom does not bypass or crack passwords.
What scan quality gives the best OCR results?
200-300 DPI scans with good contrast and straight alignment produce the best results. Skewed, blurry, or low-contrast pages significantly reduce accuracy.