Scanned PDF and image to text
Read the text in a scanned PDF, a photo or a screenshot, in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Dutch or Italian. It all runs in your browser, so your files are never uploaded.
- Files stay on your device
- No sign-up
- Free, no watermark
Drop a scanned PDF or images here
Or click to choose. One PDF, or JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF and BMP images.
Choose filesYour files are read in this browser tab and never uploaded.
How it works
- 1
Drop a scanned PDF, or one or more photos or screenshots, in the box.
- 2
Pick the language of the text and, for a PDF, the pages to read.
- 3
Click Read text. Edit the result, copy it, or download it as .txt or Word.
Questions
Are my files uploaded?
No. The text is read by your browser, on your device, and your files are never sent to Docs to PDF or anyone else. The first time, your browser downloads the OCR engine and the language data from docs-to-pdf.com; after that they come from its cache. We only record counts, such as how many pages a job had, never file names or text.
Which languages can it read?
English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Dutch and Italian, and up to three of them in one document. Languages in other scripts, such as Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Greek or Russian, are not supported yet.
How accurate is it?
Clean scans and sharp photos of printed text come out well. Handwriting, very small print, blurry or skewed photos and busy layouts don't. Pages that were hard to read get a warning, so you know which ones to check. The text is editable before you copy or download it.
My PDF already has text. Do I need OCR?
No. If the PDF already has selectable text, the tool offers to extract it instantly, which is exact and much faster. You can still choose to read it with OCR.
Is there a size limit?
On a computer you can read up to 30 pages and 100 MB at once. On phones and devices with little memory the limit is 10 pages and 30 MB. For a longer PDF, pick the pages you need and run it again for the next ones. The limits keep your browser from running out of memory; they're not a paywall.
What about password-protected PDFs?
A PDF that needs a password to open can't be read here. Remove the password first, for example in the app that created it, then add the file again.
Does it work on iPhone and Android?
Yes, in any modern browser. Phones are slower than computers: count a few seconds per page.
Is it really free?
Yes. There's no sign-up, no watermark and no daily limit. The work runs on your own device, so it costs us nothing and doesn't use any of your Docs to PDF conversions.