I Need to OCR a PDF

What this looks like

There are two reasons to OCR a document: to get the text out of it, and to make it usable by tools that read text. Both start with the same step.

• You need to quote or reuse text from a scanned document.
• You want the document to be searchable later.
• You want to ask questions about a scanned document with AI.
• You need the text in a plain-text file.

Why it happens

• The source document was scanned rather than exported.
• The PDF was produced from photographs.
• An earlier conversion discarded the text layer.
• The document was received from a fax or scanning service.

How to fix it with PDF JustFit

1. Open the document

   Load the PDF in PDF JustFit.

2. Run OCR

   Scanned pages are OCR-recognised automatically as part of processing.

3. Extract the text

   Use PDF to text to export the recognised text as a TXT file.

4. Index for AI

   With a text layer in place, the document can take part in AI document chat.

5. Compress the result

   If the scanned file is large, compress it to a target size afterwards.