PDF tools
OCR PDF (extract + Tesseract)
Embedded text or optional Tesseract OCR for scans (English).
Run OCR PDF (extract + Tesseract) online
In-browserDocument processing runs on your device. External resources may still load.
Enable JavaScript to use the interactive tool. Read the instructions, limitations and FAQs below before starting.
OCR (Optical Character Recognition) converts scanned PDF images into searchable, selectable, and copy-pasteable text. Without OCR, a scanned document is just a picture — you cannot search for a word, select a phrase to copy, or have assistive technology read it aloud. With OCR, the document behaves like a native digital text file.
This tool analyses each scanned page, identifies characters and words using machine learning recognition, and embeds a text layer behind the original scan image. The visual appearance of the document doesn't change — the same scanned page is visible — but the underlying text is now machine-readable. This is sometimes called a 'searchable PDF'.
OCR is essential for making archives of scanned records useful. Law firms OCR old case files. Accountants OCR historical invoices. Students OCR lecture handouts. Recruiters OCR scanned resumes from older application systems. Government offices OCR archived paper records for full-text search across thousands of documents.
How to use this utility
- Use the controls below—paste text, pick files, or adjust options as described on the tool.
- Click the main action button. Processing runs in your browser on this device.
- Download or copy the output. Check the processing note for any external services used by this operation.
Common use cases
- Making a scanned marksheet or certificate searchable so you can copy your registration number.
- Enabling Ctrl+F search inside a scanned annual report or financial statement.
- Converting a scanned contract into editable text for extraction into a word processor.
- Making scanned lecture notes or handbooks accessible to screen readers for visually impaired users.
- Processing a batch of scanned invoices so they can be indexed and searched in a document management system.
Tips for best results
- 1Higher-quality scans (300 DPI, good contrast) produce significantly more accurate OCR than blurry or shadowed scans.
- 2For documents in Indian regional languages, use the language-selection option if available — language-specific OCR models are far more accurate.
- 3After OCR, use Ctrl+F in your PDF viewer to verify that the text layer was correctly generated by searching for a word you can see.
- 4If OCR accuracy is poor for a particular page, that page likely has a low-quality scan — re-scan it at higher resolution.
- 5OCR adds a text layer but does not make the PDF editable in the way a native Word document is — for full editing, use a dedicated PDF editor.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Konnect2Tools free?
- Yes. These in-browser tools are completely free to use with no account required for core functionality.
- Do my files leave my device?
- Browser document operations run locally, except where the operation uses an external service, such as AI summarisation. Read the processing note before using sensitive inputs.
- Is the OCR PDF (extract + Tesseract) tool safe to use?
- Local operations process document content on your device. External-service operations may send inputs as described in the processing note. Keep originals and inspect the output.
- Will OCR change the appearance of my scanned document?
- No — the original scanned image remains as the visible content. The text layer is added invisibly behind it. The document looks identical, but now has selectable, searchable text.
- How accurate is OCR for handwritten text?
- OCR accuracy for handwritten text is significantly lower than for printed text and depends heavily on the neatness of the handwriting. Printed documents typically achieve 95–99% accuracy at 300 DPI. Handwriting recognition is an ongoing research area and may produce errors on complex handwriting.
- Can I run OCR on a PDF that already has a text layer?
- Yes, but it is usually unnecessary. If the existing text layer is incorrect or garbled (from a poor-quality previous OCR), running the tool again on the same document will regenerate and replace the text layer.
- Does OCR work for multiple languages in the same document?
- Most OCR engines handle multi-language documents reasonably well for common language pairs. For best results on a document with two distinct languages, set the primary language to the language that covers the most text.
Related tools
Continue with another utility in pdf tools.