How to Make a Scanned PDF Searchable
Add a real text layer to scanned documents so you can search, copy and analyse them — plus how to handle very long files.
Table of contents
Open a scanned contract, press Ctrl+F, search for "termination", and get nothing. The words are visible but they are pixels, not characters. OCR fixes this by recognising the text and storing it alongside the image.
Why a text layer matters
- Search across a whole archive instead of opening every file.
- Copy quotes and clause numbers without retyping.
- Accessibility — screen readers can read the document aloud.
- AI analysis — summarising or questioning a document requires extractable text.
Step-by-step: making a scan searchable
- Open the OCR tool.
- Upload the scanned PDF.
- Choose the document language.
- Start processing. Pages are handled one at a time with visible progress, and you can cancel mid-run without losing what has already been recognised.
- Review the recognised text, then download the searchable output.
Long documents
Recognition is computationally heavy — it is doing image analysis on every page. Free accounts process up to 20 pages per document, and Premium raises that to 500. For anything longer, split the file into chunks, process each, and merge the results.
Improving accuracy on bad scans
- Straighten skewed pages before processing.
- Crop away scanner borders and speckled edges.
- Increase contrast if the original was printed faintly.
- Re-scan at a higher resolution if text is under about 20 pixels tall.
After OCR
With real text in place, the rest of the toolkit opens up: summarise a 60-page report, translate a supplier contract, or ask questions of a policy document and get answers with the relevant passage quoted back.
FAQ
How long does OCR take?
Roughly a second or two per page on a modern laptop, slower on phones. Progress is reported per page so you always know where it is.
Can I stop a long job?
Yes. Cancelling stops processing immediately and the pages already recognised remain available.
How many pages can I process?
Up to 20 pages per document on the free plan and up to 500 on Premium. Split longer documents and merge the results.
Will the scanned image still look the same?
Yes. The original page image is preserved and the recognised text sits behind it, so the document looks unchanged but becomes searchable.
Make your archive searchable
Start with the document you can never find anything in, and give it a text layer.