How to use?
Scanned PDFs are often pictures of pages. OCR (optical character recognition) adds a searchable text layer so you can find words, copy passages, and get better results in editors that rely on real text.
pdfpilot runs OCR on the server with open-source tools (ocrmypdf and Tesseract). You download a new PDF; keep the original if you still need the untouched scan.
- Open OCR PDF from the toolkit.
- Upload a PDF (camera scans, exported copies, or mixed documents).
- Click Run OCR and download — large files can take a few minutes.
- Open the downloaded file in Edit PDF if you want to change wording, or use it anywhere you need selectable text.
Why use OCR PDF?
- Better search and copySearchable text makes long documents easier to navigate than image-only pages.
- Honest limitsVery long files are processed in chunks on the server so the service stays reliable for everyone.
- Unlock first when lockedPassword-protected PDFs should be decrypted with Unlock PDF before OCR.
Key features
Server-side quality
The production Docker image includes Tesseract language data for common English and Hindi text.
Skip pages that already have text
Pages that already contain extractable text are passed through efficiently when possible.
Download and continue
You always get a file you can store, email, or open again in pdfpilot.