OCR PDF

Make scanned PDFs searchable

Drop a PDF here

Up to 100 MB each · stays on this device

How to OCR a PDF

1
Upload your scanned PDF
Drag your scanned PDF onto the page or click to browse. The file stays on your device - nothing is sent to any server.
2
Select language
Choose the primary language of the text in your document. The Tesseract OCR engine supports 11 languages including English, French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
3
Download searchable PDF
Click Run OCR. The tool processes each page in your browser using WebAssembly and returns a PDF with a transparent text layer, ready to search, copy, and index.

PDFsuite OCR runs entirely in your browser using Tesseract.js compiled to WebAssembly - no upload, no server, no cloud queue. Your scanned documents stay private and offline on your own machine. Because processing happens locally, file size is limited only by your device rather than by a server. The tool handles everything from single-page receipts to multi-hundred-page scanned archives.

The WebAssembly Tesseract engine recognises text in 11 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Japanese, Korean, and Arabic. Mixed-language documents are supported by selecting the dominant language. After OCR, each page gets an invisible text layer placed precisely over the original image, so the visual appearance of the PDF is unchanged while every word becomes searchable and copy-pasteable.

Browser-based OCR is ideal when privacy matters - medical records, legal filings, and financial statements never leave your device. Because the Tesseract WASM module is loaded once and cached, repeated runs on multiple files are fast even when offline. The output is a standard PDF/A-compatible file that works in every PDF viewer, search engine crawler, and document management system.

Common questions

Which languages does the OCR tool support?: The tool supports 11 languages powered by the Tesseract.js WebAssembly engine: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Japanese, Korean, and Arabic. Select your language from the dropdown before running OCR. For documents with mixed scripts, choose the language that covers the majority of the text.
Does OCR work offline and without uploading my file?: Yes. Your scanned PDF is processed on your device using Tesseract.js compiled to WebAssembly and is never sent to a server. In the browser, each language is downloaded the first time you use it and then works offline. The Mac app includes English, so English OCR works offline right away; other languages are downloaded once, then work offline too.
Which browsers support this OCR tool?: Any modern browser with WebAssembly support works - Chrome 57+, Firefox 53+, Safari 11+, and Edge 16+. That covers virtually all desktop and mobile browsers in use today. If your browser is up to date, OCR will work without installing anything. Internet Explorer is not supported.

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How to OCR a PDF

Upload your scanned PDF

Drag your scanned PDF onto the page or click to browse. The file stays on your device - nothing is sent to any server.

Select language

Choose the primary language of the text in your document. The Tesseract OCR engine supports 11 languages including English, French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

Download searchable PDF

Click Run OCR. The tool processes each page in your browser using WebAssembly and returns a PDF with a transparent text layer, ready to search, copy, and index.

Common questions

Which languages does the OCR tool support?

The tool supports 11 languages powered by the Tesseract.js WebAssembly engine: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Japanese, Korean, and Arabic. Select your language from the dropdown before running OCR. For documents with mixed scripts, choose the language that covers the majority of the text.

Does OCR work offline and without uploading my file?

Yes. Your scanned PDF is processed on your device using Tesseract.js compiled to WebAssembly and is never sent to a server. In the browser, each language is downloaded the first time you use it and then works offline. The Mac app includes English, so English OCR works offline right away; other languages are downloaded once, then work offline too.

Which browsers support this OCR tool?

Any modern browser with WebAssembly support works - Chrome 57+, Firefox 53+, Safari 11+, and Edge 16+. That covers virtually all desktop and mobile browsers in use today. If your browser is up to date, OCR will work without installing anything. Internet Explorer is not supported.