Scanned PDF to Searchable PDF
Add an invisible OCR text layer to a scanned PDF, so you can search, select and copy its text. Runs entirely in your browser.
Make your scanned PDF searchable
Upload a scanned PDF, choose a language, then build a searchable copy.
Searchable PDF ready
How to use this tool
- Drag and drop your scanned PDF into the box above, or click to browse and select it.
- Choose the language that matches the text in the document.
- Press Make searchable and wait while each page is OCR'd and rebuilt with an invisible text layer.
- Click Download searchable.pdf to save the result to your device.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is my PDF uploaded anywhere?
No, entirely local via pdf.js, Tesseract.js and pdf-lib. Your file is never uploaded to Calcooo or any server.
What does "searchable" mean here?
The output PDF looks identical to the original scan, but you can now select, search and copy the text, because an invisible OCR text layer is placed exactly over the corresponding words in the image.
Will the result look different?
No, visually it's the same page images — the OCR text is fully transparent and only detectable when you select or search text.
How accurate is the invisible text layer?
As accurate as the underlying OCR, which depends on scan quality — a clean, high-resolution scan produces much better results than a blurry photo.