OCR Online

Image ToolsPremium

Extract editable text from an image or a scanned PDF.

Nothing Is UploadedRuns In This Browser TabNo Account Needed

How It Works

1

Upload / Input

Select your files or paste your content to get started.

2

Process

The work happens in this browser tab. Your file never leaves your device, so nothing is queued, stored or transmitted.

3

Download / Result

Get your results instantly. Download files or copy output in one click.

Features

Recognises 14 languages, all served from this site
Opens images and scanned PDFs — a PDF is read page by page
Pages that already hold text are read exactly, not recognised
Copy text or download as TXT
High accuracy with printed text

How to use OCR Online

  1. Add your image or PDF

    Drop in a photo or screenshot containing text, or a scanned PDF — the page count appears as soon as it is read.

  2. Select the language

    Choosing the right language materially improves accuracy.

  3. Extract

    The text is recognised and shown as editable, copyable text. A multi-page PDF reports its progress page by page and can be stopped at any point.

  4. Proofread

    Check numbers, names and anything in an unusual font — those are where OCR errs. Pages read from an existing text layer need no proofreading, and are flagged as such.

When to use OCR Online

  • Copying text out of a screenshot instead of retyping it
  • Extracting a quotation from a photographed page
  • Getting the numbers out of a photographed table or receipt
  • Reading text from an image so it can be translated or searched

FAQ

Fourteen: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese and Korean. Each language pack is served from this site rather than a CDN, so it works behind a strict content policy and needs no second connection.
Yes. Every page is read in turn and the text comes back labelled by page. A page with no text of its own is rendered at 300 DPI and recognised; a page that already carries a text layer is read from it directly, and the tool tells you which of the two happened.
Accuracy is typically above 95% for clearly printed text. Handwritten text and low-resolution scans may produce lower accuracy.
Very accurate on clean printed text at reasonable resolution — typically well above 95%. Accuracy falls with small or low-resolution text, skew, patterned backgrounds and decorative fonts.
0 and O, 1 and l and I, 5 and S, and rn read as m. These matter because they cluster in reference numbers, codes and account numbers — always check those digit by digit.
Not reliably. OCR targets printed type; handwriting recognition is a much harder problem with highly variable results.
Broadly, but complex multi-column layouts and tables frequently come out in an unexpected reading order. Simple single-column text extracts cleanly.
Yes, and it reads the whole document rather than one page of it. Pages are rendered at 300 DPI and recognised one at a time, so a long PDF never has more than one page in memory, and the run can be cancelled at any point.
No. The output is plain text you can copy or download as a .txt file. Writing an invisible text layer back into the original PDF is a different job, and this tool does not do it.

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About OCR Online

OCR converts a picture of text into text you can select, copy and edit. It is one of those capabilities that saves a surprising amount of time once you have it — retyping a paragraph from a screenshot takes minutes, and extracting it takes seconds.

A PDF is handled as a document rather than as a picture. Each page is rendered at 300 DPI — the resolution recognition wants, derived from the page’s own size rather than a fixed pixel count, so an A4 page and an A3 drawing are both sampled properly — and read in turn. Pages that already carry a text layer skip recognition entirely and are read exactly, and the result says how many pages went each way.

Accuracy is driven almost entirely by input quality. Clean printed text at a reasonable resolution comes back very accurate. Small text, low resolution, skewed pages, patterned backgrounds and decorative fonts all reduce it, sometimes sharply. Handwriting is a fundamentally harder problem and should not be relied on.

Always proofread the output, and focus that proofreading where errors matter. Recognition mistakes cluster in specific places: the digit 0 against the letter O, 1 against l and I, 5 against S, and rn misread as m. Those are exactly the characters that appear in reference numbers, account numbers and codes — the things where an error is most costly.

Tips and limits

  • Set the correct language. Running the wrong one produces markedly worse output.
  • Crop to just the text you need before extracting; surrounding clutter reduces accuracy.
  • Watch for 0/O, 1/l/I, 5/S and rn/m confusions, especially in reference numbers.
  • Straighten skewed images first — even a few degrees costs accuracy.
  • Handwriting is not reliably recognised. OCR is designed for printed text.