Convert scanned PDF to searchable text with OCR
2 min read·25 July 2026
A scanned PDF is essentially an image — you can't search it or copy text. OCR (text recognition) makes the content searchable. PDFrust offers free OCR in the browser.
What is OCR?
OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. The software analyses the pixels of scanned text and converts them into real, searchable characters. After OCR you can use Ctrl+F to search, copy text and have the content indexed by search engines.
When do you need OCR?
You need OCR when: you've scanned a document via a scanner or photocopier, you've taken a photo of a document with your phone and saved it as a PDF, or you've received an email with a scanned attachment displayed as an image.
PDF OCR — scan to text
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Languages and accuracy
OCR accuracy depends on scan quality. A clean, straight scan at 300 DPI gives 95–99% accuracy. Skewed or faint documents give more errors. PDFrust supports multiple languages including Dutch, English and German.
After OCR: search and copy text
Open the processed PDF in your PDF viewer and use Ctrl+F (Windows) or Cmd+F (Mac) to search. You can also select and copy text to a text editor or email.
Bulk OCR for multiple files
If you have multiple scanned documents, process them one by one. For large quantities (e.g. archive digitisation), dedicated OCR tools like ABBYY FineReader or Adobe Acrobat are better suited.
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