Make a scanned PDF searchable (OCR)

Scans are just pictures of text — you can't search or copy them. pixelpix runs OCR (Tesseract) locally and stamps an invisible text layer at exactly the word positions, so the document looks identical but becomes searchable, selectable and copyable.

Pages that already have real text are skipped automatically, and nothing is ever uploaded — scanned documents are usually the private kind.

Make a scan searchable

Scans are just pictures of text — you cannot search or copy them. pixelpix runs OCR (Tesseract) locally and stamps an invisible text layer at exactly the word positions, so the document looks identical but becomes searchable, selectable and copyable. Pages that already have real text are skipped automatically.

How it works

  1. Drop a scanned PDF and open Searchable.
  2. Run OCR (the engine downloads once, then works offline).
  3. Download the searchable PDF.

Like every pixelpix tool, this runs 100% in your browser: your file is never uploaded to a server, never leaves your device, and works even offline once the page has loaded.

Frequently asked questions

What does OCR do to my PDF?
It recognises the text in scanned pages and adds an invisible, searchable text layer over them, without changing how the document looks.
Does the scanned image change?
No — the original scan stays exactly as it is; the recognised text sits invisibly on top so you can search and copy.
Is my document uploaded for OCR?
No. Recognition runs entirely in your browser; the engine downloads once, then works offline.

More PDF tools

pixelpix — the free, private GIF · video · image · PDF studio · about · privacy · guides