OCR Online – Extract Text from Images & Scanned PDFs Free

OCR — Image & PDF to Text

Extract editable text from photos, screenshots, and scanned PDFs. Supports 25+ languages. Runs entirely in your browser.

🔒 All OCR processing happens in your browser via Tesseract.js. Your files never leave your device.

How to Use the OCR Tool

  1. Upload images or PDFs — Drag & drop one or many files. Scanned PDFs, photos of documents, screenshots, and receipts all work.
  2. Pick the language — Select the language your document is in for best accuracy (25+ supported).
  3. Choose quality & output — Fast / Balanced / Best, and pick Plain / Per-page / Markdown / JSON.
  4. Extract — Click the button. The first run downloads the language model (~5–10 MB), then OCR runs fully offline.
  5. Copy or download — Use "Copy as Rich Text" to paste into Word with formatting intact, or download as Word (.doc), TXT, MD, or JSON.

What is OCR?

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is the technology that turns pictures of text — photos, screenshots, scanned documents — into real editable text you can search, copy, and paste. Without OCR, a scanned PDF or a photo of a page is just an image: a computer sees pixels, not words. Our tool uses Tesseract.js, the browser port of the industry-standard Tesseract OCR engine, to recognize text directly on your device. Nothing is uploaded.

OCR is also the missing piece for our PDF to Text tool: regular PDF-to-Text only works on PDFs that already contain a text layer. Scanned PDFs are images — they need OCR first.

Common Use Cases

📑 Scanned documentsTurn scanned contracts, IDs, certificates, or old archives into editable text.
📸 Photos of pagesSnap a phone photo of a textbook, sign, or whiteboard and pull the text out.
🧾 Receipts & invoicesExtract amounts and line items from receipt photos for expense tracking.
🖼️ ScreenshotsGrab quotes from screenshots, error dialogs, or chat captures.
🌍 Translation prepOCR first, then paste into a translation tool for foreign documents.
♿ AccessibilityConvert image-based content into screen-reader-friendly text.

Why Choose Our OCR Tool?

  • ✅ 100% private — runs in your browser, files never uploaded
  • ✅ 25+ languages — English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Urdu & more
  • ✅ Image + PDF support — PNG, JPG, WebP, BMP, and scanned/multi-page PDFs
  • ✅ Smart hybrid mode — uses PDF text layer when present, OCRs only image pages
  • ✅ 3 quality presets — Fast, Balanced, Best
  • ✅ Word-ready output — Copy as Rich Text or download as .doc with justified formatting
  • ✅ 4 export formats — Plain, Per-page, Markdown, JSON
  • ✅ Confidence scores — see how reliable each extraction is
  • ✅ Live progress — page-by-page status with timing
  • ✅ No signup, no watermarks, no limits

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this OCR tool free?

Yes — completely free, no signup, no daily limit, no watermarks.

Is my image or PDF uploaded?

No. The OCR engine (Tesseract.js) runs entirely in your browser. Your files never leave your device.

Why is the first run slow?

The language model (~5–10 MB) downloads once on first use. After that, it's cached and OCR runs quickly.

How accurate is OCR?

Accuracy depends on image quality. Clear, high-contrast scans typically achieve 95%+ accuracy. Blurry, low-res, or handwritten text drops accuracy significantly. Use the "Best" quality preset for hard cases.

Can I paste the result into Word with formatting?

Yes — use the "Copy as Rich Text" button, then paste into Word, Google Docs, or LibreOffice. Text comes in justified, Calibri 11pt with proper paragraphs. You can also download directly as a .doc Word file.

Can OCR read handwriting?

Tesseract is optimized for printed text. Handwriting accuracy is limited — clean printed text gives the best results.

What does "Smart hybrid" mode do?

For PDFs, it first checks if each page already has a text layer. If yes, it extracts text directly (fast and 100% accurate). If a page is image-only (scanned), it falls back to OCR.

Does it work on mobile?

Yes — fully responsive. OCR works on iOS/Android too, but may be slower than desktop due to CPU.

'; var blob = new Blob(['\ufeff', html], { type: 'application/msword' }); var url = URL.createObjectURL(blob); var a = document.createElement('a'); a.href = url; a.download = 'ocr-output.doc'; document.body.appendChild(a); a.click(); setTimeout(function() { document.body.removeChild(a); URL.revokeObjectURL(url); }, 100); showToast('Word document downloaded!', 'success'); });document.getElementById('pct-oc-dl-txt').addEventListener('click', function() { if (!resultEl.value) { showToast('Nothing to download.', 'error'); return; } dl('ocr-output.txt', resultEl.value, 'text/plain;charset=utf-8'); }); document.getElementById('pct-oc-dl-md').addEventListener('click', function() { if (!resultEl.value) { showToast('Nothing to download.', 'error'); return; } dl('ocr-output.md', resultEl.value, 'text/markdown;charset=utf-8'); }); document.getElementById('pct-oc-dl-json').addEventListener('click', function() { if (!resultEl.value) { showToast('Nothing to download.', 'error'); return; } var v = resultEl.value; try { JSON.parse(v); } catch (e) { v = JSON.stringify({ text: v }, null, 2); } dl('ocr-output.json', v, 'application/json;charset=utf-8'); }); })();
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