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Searchable PDF

Searchable PDF runs OCR (optical character recognition) on scanned PDFs, adding an invisible text layer under the page images. After processing, every word is selectable, copyable, and searchable — the scan looks identical but behaves like a real document.

When to use it

Any scanned paperwork you need to work with: finding a clause in a 50-page scanned contract (Ctrl+F), copying a paragraph out of a scan, archiving paper files so they're actually retrievable, or preparing scans for the Compare Documents or PDF to Word tools, which need a text layer to function.

How to use it

1. Open Searchable PDF and upload the scanned PDF.
2. The tool runs OCR on every page — this takes longer than most tools, roughly a few seconds per page.
3. Download the searchable PDF. It looks exactly like the original. One file = one document of quota.

What the output looks like

Visually identical to the input — same page images, same layout. The difference is invisible: try selecting text with your cursor, or Ctrl+F for a word. It also enables text extraction by every other tool.

Good to know

• OCR quality follows scan quality. 300 DPI straight scans give excellent results; crooked phone photos of crumpled pages give rough ones. Rescan the bad pages if accuracy matters.
• The text layer is hidden behind the image, so proofreading means spot-checking: search for a few known words and see if they're found.
• Handwriting in scans is generally not recognized — this is for printed text.
• File size grows modestly because of the added text layer — usually 5–15%.
• Already-searchable PDFs (exported from Word, etc.) don't need this — running them through again wastes a document.

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