Skip to content

Make scanned PDFs searchable: OCR explained in 5 minutes

Why scanned PDFs are not searchable and how text recognition fixes that – including tips for better scans.

Published on

A scanner produces images – even if the result is a PDF file. That is why search finds nothing and copying does not work. The solution is OCR (optical character recognition).

What OCR does

The software recognises letters in the image and places an invisible text layer exactly over the words. Nothing changes visually, but search, copy and highlight work.

Five tips for good results

  1. Scan at 300 dpi – higher rarely helps.
  2. Insert pages straight.
  3. Use greyscale instead of colour when colour is not needed.
  4. Choose the right language.
  5. Use the scanner’s “text” mode for low contrast.

With PDFnord

Start text recognition via Tools › Text recognition. Learn more on the OCR PDF page.

Buy once, use forever – including every Standard feature.

See pricing Download for free

More articles