What this looks like
A scanned PDF looks like a document but behaves like a photograph album. Nothing in it is text, so nothing in it can be found. OCR is the step that changes that.
- Searching inside the document returns no results.
- Text cannot be selected or copied.
- The document cannot be indexed by other tools.
- AI document chat appears to have no content to work with.
Why it happens
- The scanner produced page images rather than a text layer.
- The document was created from photographs of pages.
- A previous conversion dropped the text layer.
- The PDF was exported from an image-only source.
How to fix it with PDF JustFit
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Confirm the document is image-only
Try to select text on a page. If nothing selects, there is no text layer.
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Open the PDF in PDF JustFit
Load the scanned document from Files or the share sheet.
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Let OCR run
Scanned pages are OCR-recognised automatically, so nothing is left out of the index.
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Use the text
Search the document, extract its text, or ask questions about it with AI chat.
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Compress if needed
Scanned files are often large; compress to a target size once the text layer exists.
Frequently asked questions
Why can't I search my scanned PDF?
A scanned PDF contains page images rather than text. Until OCR reconstructs a text layer, there is nothing for search to match.
How do I make a scanned PDF searchable?
Run OCR on the document. In PDF JustFit, scanned pages are OCR-recognised automatically so that they can be indexed and queried.
Sources
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