Recognize text and improve scanned PDFs with free online tools. Extract words into editable text or Word, create a searchable PDF with Classic OCR, clean uneven backgrounds, adjust contrast or straighten tilted pages. Translate a page or selected area, or create a scanned appearance from an existing PDF.
Give your PDF a scanned-paper appearance.
Make scanned words searchable and editable.
Cleaner backgrounds. Clearer notes.
Read one page or a selected area in another language.
Find a clearer balance of light and dark.
Straighten tilted scanned PDF pages automatically or with a chosen angle.
Digitize printed records, reuse passages from research papers or make faded classroom notes easier to read. Text recognition and image cleanup are different operations: choose OCR for words you can edit, and enhancement controls for the way the page looks.
PDF OCR processes the current page or selected area. Choose the recognition language, then Classic for most printed documents or Future for difficult scans, some handwriting and complex multilingual text. Review the result and use Smart edit for corrections, summaries, suggested titles or grammar adjustments.
Enhance Scanned PDF offers Clean scan, Black & white and Colored notes profiles. Contrast PDF offers manual adjustments, Auto levels and Local contrast. Preview changes on the active page, keep Apply to all pages enabled for shared settings, or turn it off to adjust pages individually.
Deskew PDF corrects tilted page content; ordinary Rotate PDF is better for sideways pages. PDF to Scan creates image-based pages with a live preview and adjustable effects. Set noise to zero for a clean conversion. These visual tools do not add a searchable text layer automatically.
A few answers to help you choose the right tool.
Classic works well for most printed documents. Future uses advanced AI recognition for difficult scans, some handwriting and complex multilingual text. Neither guarantees perfect recognition; choose the language and review names, numbers and unclear words.
Choose Classic OCR and PDF output. It places recognized text behind the image of the processed page or selected area. Future produces a reflowed text PDF instead. Both engines also offer TXT and Word document downloads.
PDF OCR and Translate PDF each process the current page or selected area, one at a time. Choose another page for the next request. Translate PDF also limits each request to 25,000 characters.
No. Contrast, background cleanup and deskewing change the visual appearance. Use PDF OCR to recognize text. Image-based enhancement can replace an existing text layer, so keep the original when that layer matters.
Yes. Contrast PDF and Enhance Scanned PDF start with Apply to all pages enabled. Turn it off to adjust the current page separately; the controls restore that page’s settings when you return to it.
Yes. Text results can be edited, copied and downloaded. Smart edit adds formatting and text actions such as summarizing, suggesting a title and fixing grammar. Review any changed wording; it is not a substitute for checking the source.
No. PDF to Scan converts pages into an image-based scanned appearance. PDF OCR recognizes words from images. Set PDF to Scan noise to zero if you want clean image-based pages without simulated noise.
