Advanced
How to OCR a Scanned PDF and Extract the Text
A scanned PDF is really just a picture of text, so you cannot select or search it. OCR, which stands for optical character recognition, reads the words back out. Filenik does this for free, privately, in your browser.
Step by step
- Open the OCR PDF tool and upload your scanned PDF.
- Pick the language of the document.
- Click Recognise Text and let it process each page.
- Copy the recognised text, or download it as a text file.
Pro tips
- Clear, straight scans give the most accurate results.
- The first run downloads a small language model, so give large files a moment.
Why use Filenik
Filenik runs a real OCR engine right in your browser, so your scans are never uploaded. It supports English and several other major languages, and it is completely free.
Frequently asked questions
What file types can I OCR?
Scanned PDFs and image based pages work well.
Which languages are supported?
English plus several major languages. Choose the language before you run it for the best accuracy.
Is my scan private?
Yes. Recognition happens on your device, nothing is uploaded.
Why is the first run slower?
The OCR engine downloads a small language model the first time, then later runs are faster.