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OCR PDF

Use our online OCR to recognize text from images.

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How to use free online OCR

1Online or offline

Create text from image files using Soda PDF's free online OCR software. You can use Optical Character Recognition from any application, anytime, anywhere! Work online through Soda PDF Online, or offline by downloading Soda PDF Desktop to your computer. Try our easy-to-use PDF tools like OCR and our other PDF modification services, online or offline!

2Run OCR

Do more with your PDF documents! Upload files and use OCR to convert scanned images containing text in your PDF document to plain text that you can copy, paste, and edit just like a Microsoft Word processor.

3Send by email

Once your PDF file has been created, access the online OCR file by downloading the PDF to your computer and viewing the OCR content within your document directly through your web browser. Once our software has output your new, editable PDF, you can then send your OCR document by sending & sharing the document with others through email.

Did you know?

Did you know?

OCR is a key tool for digitizing documents

OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition software. The earliest version of OCR technology was invented in 1914, long before the invention of PDF or other digital document formats. It was used to read strings of text and convert them into telegraph code. Now, OCR is used everywhere from data entry to license plate recognition and has become a key tool for recognizing and digitizing handwritten and scanned documents without needing to retype.

What is the function of OCR?

The function of OCR is to help digitize documents in a timely manner and fashion. Instead of retyping files or manually typing out text within image files, you can use OCR to automatically scan and recognize text within your image or your scanned document.

An example: scan your printed document, open Soda PDF via desktop or online, and use our OCR feature to scan your image for text to turn that image into a modifiable file! OCR is used to help you save time and quickly digitize your files for a more streamlined workflow or document management. You can finally declutter that desk and go digital and paperless using the power of OCR thanks to your friends at Soda PDF!

Learn more about OCR

What is OCR & how do you OCR an image?

Need to digitize paper documents? Just sit back and watch our online OCR software do its magic! Our OCR tool will automatically scan your document for recognizable text within images.

You can even use your phone camera to take a picture of your document or page to process the file for our OCR software, which would then recognize the text within the image file, and convert your file to the portable document format (PDF). You can then edit the fonts or texts within this file with ease and customize the newly created PDF to your file requirements.

Scan & recognize information within images

Have a lot of files to recognize and convert with OCR? No worries! Soda PDF gives you the power to batch recognize text from multiple files at once! Turn an image to text or images to text recognition PDF documents, allowing you to edit scanned documents with ease and avoid retyping documents in Microsoft Word or another application.

Please note that our OCR engine doesn't just recognize the English language. Our OCR tool can also recognize text from images from our application's supported languages: French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. Our OCR technology will also be able to detect characters from the following languages: Danish, Greek, Italian, Polish, Japanese, Chinese, Dutch, and Turkish. Should you have any image files containing these languages that you want to be able to detect text within, you can easily turn these file types into editable PDFs using our OCR feature!

Create PDFs using OCR or from blank

Our OCR recognition product is just one of the many ways you can format documents to your needs. Try out our handy online PDF Creator tool to make new PDFs from pictures, documents, from scratch or even excel sheets in seconds! Save time and create an original file or pages for your PDF in one simple step. Looking to edit, create, convert, merge, split, or E-Sign your PDFs? Our other online service can also support your other document needs, online or offline.

Try our other online tools from your web browser or desktop. Our OCR software is just one of the many PDF services Soda PDF can provide. Choose the desktop product that's right for you, or use our online tools for processing documents remotely. Save and access your PDFs from a cloud storage service like Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Sharepoint, or Evernote. Our software solution works online or offline!

FAQ

How can I use OCR in PDF?

Our OCR tool will automatically read your scanned document or images for recognizable text. You can then edit your existing text, add new text boxes and search your PDF.

Can you convert a PDF to editable text?

Any file format can easily be converted into a PDF using OCR technology. Our tool will scan the contents of your file and allow you to edit them.

What does OCR stand for?

OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition, it's an advanced method to extract the text found in an image or any other visual file.

*Size and daily usage limitations may apply.