What you get — and the honest trade-offs
The saved file looks identical to your scan, and the hidden text layer sits approximately where the printed words are (close enough for search and selection; not pixel-perfect typesetting). Two honest costs: the file is bigger than the original scan because pages are stored as quality images, and OCR mistakes stay hidden in the layer — a misread name will not be found by search, so for legal or archival originals keep the untouched scan too. Text the layer contains is standard Latin-alphabet recognition; Urdu/Arabic OCR text is extracted by the OCR tool, but the hidden-layer placement works best with English and European languages.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I test it worked?
Open the downloaded PDF, press Ctrl+F and search for a word from the page — or drag-select some text and copy it.
Will it work on a 100-page scan?
Technically yes, practically it will take a long time in a browser tab and use a lot of memory. Split the PDF first (our Split tool) and process it in parts.
Related Tools
Merge PDF — Combine multiple PDFs into one file — in order, free, no upload.
Split PDF — Split a PDF by page ranges, extract pages, or save every page separately.
Organize PDF — Reorder, rotate and delete PDF pages visually — drag and drop.
Rotate PDF — Rotate PDF pages 90°, 180° or 270° — all pages or a chosen range.
Compress PDF — Reduce PDF file size — lossless structure mode or strong image mode.
Image to PDF — Convert JPG and PNG images to a PDF — one image per page, in your order.
PDF to Image — Convert PDF pages to JPG or PNG images — up to 216 DPI.
PDF to Text — Extract all text from a PDF into an editable .txt file.
Text to PDF — Turn plain text into a clean, paginated A4 PDF document.
Word to PDF — Convert Word (.docx) documents to PDF — free, in your browser.
Excel to PDF — Convert Excel sheets (.xlsx, .xls, .csv) to PDF — in your browser.
Add Page Numbers to PDF — Stamp page numbers on a PDF — "Page 1 of 10", any position.
Watermark PDF — Add a text watermark — CONFIDENTIAL, DRAFT, your brand — to every page.
PDF Metadata Editor — View and edit a PDF's title, author, subject and keywords.
Unlock PDF — Remove a PDF's permission restrictions — printing/copying locks — free.
Resize PDF — Change PDF page size to A4, Letter, Legal or A5 — for clean printing.
PDF Viewer — Open and read PDFs in your browser — with zoom and full-text search.
PDF Editor — Edit PDFs free in your browser — add text, images, highlights and signatures.
Highlight PDF — Highlight text in a PDF with colored markers — free, no upload.
Add Image to PDF — Insert an image, logo or stamp into a PDF — place and resize it freely.
Sign PDF — Sign a PDF online — draw, type or upload your signature, free.
OCR PDF — Turn a scanned PDF into real, copyable text — OCR that runs in your browser.
PDF Form Filler — Fill in real PDF forms — text fields, checkboxes, dropdowns — and save.
Extract Images from PDF — Pull the original embedded photos and graphics out of a PDF.