# Make Scanned PDFs Searchable with OCR

> Run OCR on scanned PDFs. Make them text-searchable, or extract plain text. Supports 11 languages.

Live tool: https://lofttools.com/tools/pdf-tools/ocr-pdf

Category: PDF & Documents

## How it works

1. **Select scanned PDF** — Drop or browse a scanned/image PDF up to 50 MB.
2. **Pick language and output** — Choose the document's language. Pick "Searchable PDF" to keep the original look with a hidden text layer, or "Plain text" for a .txt download.
3. **Run OCR** — Recognition runs entirely in your browser via Tesseract.js. First run downloads a ~10 MB language pack.

## FAQ

### How is this different from Extract PDF Text?

Extract PDF Text only works on digital PDFs that already have a text layer (created from Word, Pages, etc.). OCR PDF works on scanned/image PDFs that are just pixels — it recognizes text from the page images.

### Does my file get uploaded?

No. Tesseract.js runs entirely in your browser. The PDF and the recognized text never leave your device.

### How long does it take?

Roughly 5-15 seconds per page on a modern laptop. Larger or busier pages take longer. The first page after picking a language is slower because the language pack downloads on first run.

### Why are some words wrong?

OCR accuracy depends on scan quality, contrast, language, and font. Cleaner scans + the right language pack give the best results. Low-confidence words are filtered out of the searchable layer.

## Privacy — what we do not do

This tool runs entirely in the browser via WebAssembly. Your file never reaches a Loft Tools server. Specifically:

- **No upload.** The file bytes load into the browser tab's memory and process on your own CPU. Open DevTools → Network and observe zero outbound requests carrying file data while Make Scanned PDFs Searchable with OCR runs.
- **No AI training on your file.** Loft does not train models. We could not train on a file we cannot see.
- **No content scanning.** No virus, copyright, or content-moderation pass against your file. The bytes are not accessible to us.
- **No server-side log of file contents, filenames, or EXIF metadata.** Cloudflare edge captures URL and truncated IP for abuse defense (standard CDN behaviour). Cloudflare Web Analytics records anonymous page hits, no cookies, no PII. Nothing about your file content reaches any log.
- **No retention.** Close the tab and the file leaves browser memory. No backups exist on our side because no copy ever existed on our side.
- **No account.** No email, no signup, no auth, no telemetry tied to you.
- **Offline-capable after first visit** (PWA). Once you've loaded a tool, it caches; later sessions work without internet. For high-sensitivity files, run the tool once online to warm the cache, then disconnect before processing.

Compare with upload-based services: each transmits your file to a processing server. Even over HTTPS, each has logs, retention windows, and subpoena exposure. Loft has none of these because the server architecture does not include your file.

## More

- All tools: https://lofttools.com/tools
- Category: https://lofttools.com/tools/pdf-tools
- LLM index: https://lofttools.com/llms.txt