Make scanned PDFs searchable with OCR. Add a text layer so you can search, copy, and select text.
Understanding Searchable PDFs
A searchable PDF contains an invisible text layer that sits on top of the image layer. This text is recognized through OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and can be selected, searched, and copied - just like text in a native PDF.
Scanned documents are essentially images. Without OCR, you can't select or search the text. Adding a text layer fixes this.
What OCR Enables
OCR technology adds these capabilities:
- Text search - Find specific words in your document
- Copy and paste - Extract text for reuse
- Text selection - Highlight and markup text
- Indexing - Include in document searches
- Screen readers - Accessibility support
How to Make PDF Searchable
Follow these steps to add searchable text:
- Open your scanned PDF in PDFLocally
- Select "Make Searchable" from the OCR menu
- Choose your language (English, etc.)
- Click "Recognize Text"
- Wait for OCR processing to complete
- Save as searchable PDF
"Making our archive searchable saved hours of document retrieval time. Now we can find any contract instantly."
OCR Accuracy Comparison
| Tool | Accuracy | Languages | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| PDFLocally | 98% | 50+ | Fast |
| Adobe | 97% | 30+ | Medium |
| Tesseract | 95% | 100+ | Slow |
Verifying Searchable Text
To check if a PDF is searchable:
# Quick test
1. Open PDF in reader
2. Click text select tool (Ctrl+A)
3. Try to select text over an image
4. If text highlights: searchable!If the text highlights and selects, your OCR was successful. If not, run the OCR again with different settings.
Make Your PDFs Searchable
Add searchable text to scanned PDFs with PDFLocally's OCR. Try it free now.
Make Searchable