Extract text from scanned PDF
Render each page locally, recognise printed English text and download the result as a plain text file.
At a glance: Input: 1 scanned PDF · Output: page-by-page text + UTF-8 .txt · Local OCR · Original file unchanged
Extract text from a scan on this device
OCR is different from the existing Extract text tool. Extract text reads characters already stored in a PDF; this tool renders each page locally and recognises printed text from the page image. The original PDF remains unchanged, and the result is shown one page at a time so you can check it before copying or downloading.
The English recognition data, PDF renderer, and OCR worker are served from SnackPDF's own origin and cached with the rest of the application. Once the offline-ready message appears, OCR does not need a network connection or a document-processing service.
Review confidence and the plain-text result
Each page includes the recognition confidence reported by Tesseract.js. It is a useful prompt for review, not a guarantee of correctness. Expect mistakes with handwriting, unusual typefaces, skewed pages, tables, columns, faded scans, accents and page images with low contrast. Compare names, numbers, dates and amounts against the scan before reusing them.
Copy the full document, copy an individual page or download a UTF-8 .txt file. Page layout, images, tables and formatting are not preserved in plain text.
Privacy, cost and compatibility
- Uploaded?
- No. PDF pages are rendered and recognised in this browser tab.
- Cost and account
- Free to use without an account or paid credits.
- Watermark
- None is added to the extracted text.
- Offline
- Yes, after the local OCR assets and application are ready for offline use.
- Mobile
- Supported mobile browsers can run OCR, but scans with many pages use substantial memory and time.
- Important limit
- English OCR data is bundled. Recognition can misread unclear, handwritten, rotated or unusual text; confidence is an estimate, not proof.