OCR PDF to Text
Render and OCR every page of a scanned PDF inside your browser. Page-by-page progress.
- Browser-only
- No upload
- No login
- No watermark
- Clear instantly
- Open-source engines
Heads upEach page is rendered and OCR'd. Large PDFs may take several minutes on slower devices.
Drop a file here
or use the buttons below · .pdf
Your file stays on this device · conversion runs locally in your browser
Deep dive
What is OCR PDF to Text?
OCR PDF to Text extracts readable text from scanned PDFs — the kind where the pages are actually images rather than searchable text. This is a common problem with old contracts, invoices, and photocopied books that were scanned but never OCR-ed.
FormatSwitch renders each PDF page in your browser using PDF.js, runs Tesseract.js OCR page by page, and produces a plain-text transcript. Everything happens locally — even long, sensitive documents never leave your device.
When to use it
- Turn a scanned contract into searchable, copyable text.
- Convert a photocopied book chapter into an editable document.
- Extract quotes from a scanned research paper.
- Get text out of an old, image-only PDF form.
How to use it safely without uploading
Drop the scanned PDF and press Run OCR. Progress is shown page by page. Copy the transcript or download it as a .txt file.
Browser-based vs server-based conversion
Most online converters upload your files to their servers, process them there, and then let you download the result. That means your file exists on someone else's computer, often in logs and backups, sometimes indefinitely. FormatSwitch is different: every conversion runs on your device using WebAssembly and the browser's built-in Canvas and PDF engines. Your file never leaves your computer, so there is nothing to leak, nothing to subpoena, and nothing to trust us on — the code that does the work is running right in your tab.
FAQ
OCR PDF to Text — questions people ask
- Is my PDF uploaded?
- No. Files are processed entirely in your browser using WebAssembly and the Canvas API. Nothing is uploaded to a server, and no copy is kept once you close or refresh the tab.
- How long does it take?
- Roughly 1–3 seconds per page on a modern laptop. Long PDFs can take a few minutes — you can watch the per-page progress.
- Does it preserve formatting?
- The output is plain text. Layout, tables, and columns are not preserved — this is a text extraction, not a layout conversion.
- Does it work on mobile?
- Yes. Every tool runs on modern iOS Safari and Android Chrome. Very large files may be slower on mobile because of tighter memory limits.
- Are my PDFs stored anywhere?
- No. Files live only in your browser's memory (JavaScript heap). They disappear when you clear the queue, refresh, or close the tab. There is no server, no database, no log.
- Can I cancel a long OCR run?
- Yes. Every page is processed in a cancellable job — press Stop and the browser aborts the remaining pages instantly.