Make a Scanned PDF Searchable
PDFDrop a scanned PDF: its pages are read on your device and the words laid invisibly under each one — the PDF looks the same and can be searched.
A scanned PDF is a stack of pictures of pages. It looks like a document, but there are no words in it: a search finds nothing, a sentence cannot be selected or copied, and a screen reader has nothing to read. Making it searchable — OCR — means reading the words in each picture and putting them back into the PDF as text, invisible and lined up exactly over the words you see. Drop the PDF in, and the pages that are pictures with no text are found and read straight away, one after another. Pages that already have text are left as they are, so a search never finds the same word twice. Save, and you have the same PDF — every page looks exactly as it did — that can be searched, selected and copied from in any PDF reader.
The words are read on your device, by the same engine as the OCR Scanner. The first time, its text model — about 31 MB — is downloaded from Alvseike and kept by your browser, so the next scan starts at once. The PDF itself never leaves your device, which matters when the scan is a contract, a payslip or a letter from the tax office. And once it is searchable, the rest of the PDF Editor is right there: redact a name, add a note, or sign it.
Why do it here
100% private
Your PDF files are processed locally and never uploaded.
Instant
No upload or download wait — it runs at the speed of your device.
Free to start
Use it free every day; go Pro for unlimited runs.
No install
Works in any modern browser. No sign-up to begin.
How it works
- 1Drop your scanned PDF
The pages with no text are found and read at once, on your device. Nothing is uploaded.
- 2Wait for the pages to be read
Each page is read in turn, and the bar above the page says how far it has come. Pages that already have text are left alone.
- 3Save the searchable PDF
The words go in invisibly under each page and the copy is saved with -searchable in its name, looking exactly as before.
Frequently asked questions
Does it change how the PDF looks?
No. The words are added as invisible text under each scanned page, and the pictures are not touched, so every page looks exactly as it did. The file grows only by the words themselves — about a kilobyte for a page with a few lines on it.
How accurate is it?
Clear print reads well; how well depends on the scan — sharp, straight, evenly lit pages read best. The text is invisible, so a misread word does not show on the page: it only means a search for that word misses it there. One known weak spot: in words set entirely in capitals, Å is often read as A and Æ as AE.
Which languages does it read?
Text in the Latin alphabet — English, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, German, French, Spanish and the other Western European languages — is read and written into the PDF, letters like æ, ø, å, ä, ö, é and ñ included. The hidden text uses the PDF's standard font, which has only Western European letters, so a character outside it — Polish ł, Czech ř, Chinese — is left out, and the words around it can still be searched.
My PDF has some pages with text and some without. What happens?
Only the pages that are pictures with no text at all are read; the others are left as they are. A scan that already carries a line of real text — a page number or a header added by the scanner — counts as having text and is not read.
What is downloaded, and is my PDF uploaded?
Your PDF is not uploaded: it is opened, read and saved in your own browser. What is downloaded is the text model, about 31 MB, once, from Alvseike's own server; your browser keeps it, so the next PDF starts straight away. Reading costs nothing; saving the searchable copy counts as one of the day's free runs.
I only need the text out of the scan. Is there a quicker way?
Yes: the OCR Scanner reads pictures and gives you the text to copy or download. This page is for when you want to keep the PDF itself, and be able to search it.