Free OCR Online — PDF & Image to Text

Turn scans and photos into editable text — 14+ languages including Hindi, Arabic and Chinese, all on your device.

What is the OCR — Scan to Text tool?

The OCR tool reads text out of images and scanned PDFs — documents that look like text but are actually pictures — and turns it into fully editable text. It supports 14+ languages including English, Hindi, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Bengali, Tamil and Urdu, and even combined English+Hindi documents. Recognition runs on your device using the open-source Tesseract engine.

Key features

  • Reads JPG, PNG and scanned PDF files
  • 14+ recognition languages, including English+Hindi combined
  • Editable output box — fix, copy, or download as .txt
  • Multi-page scans processed page by page with progress
  • On-device recognition — private papers never uploaded

How do I use it?

  1. Drop an image or scanned PDF (several files at once is fine).
  2. Pick the document’s language — e.g. Hindi, Arabic or English + Hindi.
  3. Click Scan & extract text; the first scan downloads that language’s data once.
  4. Edit the recognized text, copy it, or download the .txt.

Is it safe to OCR a document online?

Yes. Recognition is performed by Tesseract.js — the browser build of the well-known open-source OCR engine — running on your own processor. The only network activity is a one-time download of the chosen language’s data pack (a few MB, then cached); your image or scan itself is never transmitted anywhere.

Tips for the best result

  • Sharper input = better output: scan at 300 DPI or photograph straight-on in good light.
  • Pick the right language — it’s the single biggest accuracy factor.
  • Mixed Hindi/English documents: choose “English + Hindi”.
  • The first scan per language downloads its data pack once; later scans start instantly.

OCR or PDF to Text — use the right tool for the document

Use OCR when the words are inside a scan, photo or image-only PDF. If you can already select and copy the text in the PDF, PDF to Text is usually the more direct extractor.

OCR PDF free — extract text from a PDF image. Scanned PDFs and photos contain pictures of text rather than real text. This free OCR reads those images in the supported languages and turns them into editable text you can copy or download.

Scanned PDF to editable text. Run OCR on a scanned PDF, extract text from a PDF that contains images, copy text from a photo or JPG, or convert a scanned PDF to Word: recognise the text here, then paste it into Word or Google Docs. It is a free online OCR scanner for English, Hindi, Arabic, Bengali and more. Read how to extract text from a PDF that contains images.

Free OCR online — scanned PDF, image and photo to text

OCR online free — PDF to OCR online in your browser. Optical character recognition reads the words out of a scanned PDF or a photo so you can copy, search or edit them. It is a free online OCR PDF tool with no sign-up, and recognition runs on your device in 14+ languages, so the scan is never uploaded.

Free OCR PDF to Word and to text. OCR scanned PDF pages, then copy or download the recognised text and paste it into Word or Google Docs. For a PDF that already has selectable text, PDF to Word keeps more of the layout. To fix words on the scanned page itself, open it in the PDF editor, which also works as an OCR PDF editor.

OCR tool for PDF, free and online. Use this online PDF OCR free to convert a scanned PDF to text, copy text from a photo, or make a free scanned PDF to Word: recognise the text here, then paste it into Word or Google Docs. PDF OCR free works for English, Hindi, Arabic, Bengali and more, on your device.

Frequently asked questions

How do I convert a scanned PDF into editable text?

Drop the scan here, choose its language and click Scan & extract — the recognized text appears in an editable box you can copy or download.

Which languages does the OCR support?

English, Hindi, Arabic, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese, Bengali, Tamil, Urdu — plus English+Hindi combined.

Why is my OCR result inaccurate?

Usually image quality or a wrong language selection. Re-shoot straight-on in good light at higher resolution, and double-check the language menu.

Can it read handwriting?

Printed text is the target; neat handwriting sometimes works partially, but accuracy on cursive writing is low — that’s a limit of OCR technology generally.

Does OCR work on photos taken with my phone?

Yes — JPG and PNG photos work; crop to the document and avoid glare for best results.

Is my scan uploaded for recognition?

No. Only the language data pack is downloaded (once); your document is processed entirely on your device.

How do I extract text from a PDF that contains an image?

If you cannot select the words, the text is part of an image. Open the PDF here, pick the document language and click Scan & extract text. OCR reads the image and gives you editable text to copy or download as TXT.

How do I convert a scanned PDF to Word online free?

Run OCR on the scanned PDF here, check the recognised text, then copy it into Word or Google Docs and save as DOCX. To edit the scan directly in the PDF instead, use the editor's OCR option.

Is this OCR scanner free?

Yes. OCR runs on your device with the open-source Tesseract engine — free, with no sign-up and no upload. Only the language data pack is downloaded once.

Related tools: PDF to Text · PDF to Word · JPG to PDF

For Hindi OCR or another document language, choose the matching language before scanning. Compare names, dates and numbers with the original image before using the extracted text.

🔒 Privacy: this tool runs entirely in your browser. Your file is never uploaded, stored, or shared. LyfPDF offers 33 free PDF tools, including 12 core tools localized in 7 languages, with 0 uploads — learn how it works.