Read text from scanned PDFs with on-device OCR. Nothing is uploaded — recognition runs in your browser.
PDF or drop files here
Privacy: most tools run in your browser. Advanced PDF Editor operations may use secure temporary backend processing.
Scanned PDFs store pages as pictures, so there is no text to select or copy. This free OCR tool reads those page images with Tesseract — the same open-source engine used by professional document pipelines — and turns them into real, copyable text. The crucial difference from other online OCR services: recognition runs inside your browser. Your scan is never uploaded, which makes it safe for contracts, medical records, IDs, and anything else you would not paste into a random website.
The OCR engine (~9 MB) downloads once and is cached; after that it works offline. Mixed documents are handled intelligently — pages that already contain a text layer are extracted directly and only image-only pages go through OCR, so results are fast and accurate. English recognition is included; clean scans at 200 DPI or higher give the best results.
Extract passages from journal articles for literature reviews or thesis citations.
Pull quarterly data from PDF financials into spreadsheets for analysis.
Extract contract clauses or deposition testimony for keyword searches and brief writing.
Convert PDF guides or manuals to plain text for website republishing or CMS import.
No. The Tesseract OCR engine runs as WebAssembly inside your browser tab. The PDF, the page images, and the recognized text all stay on your device — you can even disconnect from the internet after the engine loads.
English is currently included. Recognition of clean English scans at 200 DPI or higher is very reliable; handwriting is not supported.
No. This tool extracts plain text only without styling, fonts, or colors. For formatted text, copy/paste directly from Adobe Reader or use "Save As" → Word in full PDF editors.
PDFs break long words at line ends with hyphens (e.g., "docu-
ment"). Joining removes these breaks to restore whole words ("document") for better readability in plain text.
Enhance your PDF workflow:
Processing Mode: Local-Only On Device
This tool processes files in your browser on your device. No backend upload is required for the core workflow.
1. Upload your scanned PDF
Click or drag your PDF into the OCR tool. The file is read locally in your browser and never uploaded.
2. Run OCR
Pages without embedded text are detected automatically. Click Run OCR - the recognition engine (about 9 MB, one-time download) runs entirely on your device.
3. Copy or download the text
Review the recognized text, then copy it to your clipboard or download it as a .txt file.
With OnDevicePDF, yes: the OCR engine runs entirely in your browser. Your scan and its recognized text never leave your device, so there is no server-side exposure.
Scanners save pages as images, so there is no text layer to select. OCR (optical character recognition) reads the image and produces real text you can copy, search, and edit.
Accuracy depends on scan quality. Clean, straight scans at 200 DPI or higher in English recognize very well; low-resolution photos or skewed pages will contain more errors, so review the output.
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