Why is OCR slow on multi-page PDFs?

Each page is rendered at high resolution and processed by the Tesseract engine. A 10-page document may take 30-90 seconds depending on your device.

Can I OCR handwritten text?

Tesseract is optimised for printed text. Handwriting requires specialised models and will produce poor results.

How do I save extracted text to Google Drive?

After OCR completes, click Save to Google Drive. Authorize PDF Scanner once, and your text saves directly to Drive.

Is my Google Drive data safe with PDF Scanner?

Yes. PDFScanner.io only requests permission to save files. We cannot read or modify your existing Drive files. All processing happens in your browser.

Can I use OCR PDF without a Google account?

Yes. Copy and download work without any account. Google Drive saving is completely optional.

OCR PDF — Extract Text from Scanned PDFs

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Drag & Drop Your Scanned PDF Here

Upload a scanned or image-based PDF to extract its text

📂 Select PDF File

⚙️ OCR Options

Language

Resolution

Initialising OCR engine…

✅

Text Extracted Successfully!

OCR result will appear here…

ℹ️ First use note: Tesseract.js downloads a language model (~10 MB) on first run. This may take 20–40 seconds depending on your connection. After that, OCR runs instantly offline.

How to Extract Text from a Scanned PDF

Using PDF Scanner to extract text from scanned documents is simple. Upload your scanned or image-based PDF using the tool above. You can drag and drop the file directly or click to browse your device. Once uploaded, select the language of the document and choose your preferred resolution — High resolution is recommended for best accuracy.

Click "Extract Text (OCR)" to start the process. PDF Scanner renders each page at high resolution and passes it through the Tesseract.js OCR engine running entirely in your browser. The extracted text appears in a text box where you can review it, copy it to your clipboard, or download it as a plain text file.

OCR works best with clean, high-contrast scans of printed text. For multi-page documents, each page is processed sequentially. You can also save the extracted text directly to Google Drive for easy access across your devices.

PDFScanner.io supports over 100 languages including English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and Hindi. The OCR engine runs completely offline after the initial language model download, making it a secure choice for confidential documents like contracts, medical records, and financial statements.

FAQ

OCR PDF — FAQ

How accurate is the OCR?▼

Accuracy depends on the quality of the scan. Clean, high-resolution scans of printed text in standard fonts produce the best results. Blurry images, unusual fonts, or handwriting will reduce accuracy.

Which file formats does OCR PDF support?▼

You can upload any PDF file — scanned documents, image-based PDFs, and mixed documents with both text and images. The tool extracts readable text and lets you copy or download it as a .txt file.