Run OCR on Scanned PDFs and Recover Selectable Text
Turn image-based PDF scans into searchable documents. Use OCR to speed review, editing, and annotation workflows across operations, legal, and finance teams.
How It Works
1. Upload Scanned PDF
Open image-based pages in LanaPDF.
2. Run OCR
Enable text recognition from the tools menu.
3. Search and Edit
Work with recognized text in your normal editing flow.
When OCR Helps Most
- Scanned contracts that need revision notes.
- Legacy PDFs that only contain image pages.
- Archival documents that must become searchable.
What OCR Changes
A scanned PDF often behaves like a folder of images, which means search, selection, and downstream editing break down. Users searching OCR PDF online are usually trying to recover usable text from those image-only pages. Once OCR runs, the same file becomes easier to search, annotate, and review.
What Usually Comes Next
OCR is often a bridge step. After text recognition, teams typically redact sensitive passages, sign the corrected file, or make final text edits guided by the how to edit a PDF guide. If the source is split across several scans, start by using Merge PDF.
FAQ
No. You can run OCR and continue editing while keeping the source intact.
Yes. Combine files first, then run OCR on the merged document.
Yes. OCR and signing are part of the same browser workflow.