Image to Text (OCR)

What Is OCR and Why Do You Need It?

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) converts images of text — scanned documents, photographs of pages, screenshots — into actual, selectable, searchable text. If you've ever received a scanned PDF from your bank, a photographed receipt, or a faxed contract, you know the frustration: the text is trapped inside an image. You can't search it, copy it, or edit it. OCR solves this.

According to IMARC Group (2025), the global OCR market is valued at $13.95 billion and projected to reach $46.09 billion by 2033. Modern AI-powered OCR systems achieve accuracy rates exceeding 98.5% for complex character sets including handwritten text.

PDFJolt's OCR tool runs entirely in your browser using Tesseract.js, the most widely-used open-source OCR engine. Your documents are never uploaded to any server — making it safe for bank statements, medical records, legal contracts, tax forms, and any other sensitive documents.

How PDFJolt OCR Works

PDFJolt uses a three-step process to extract text from your scanned documents:

1. Rendering — PDF pages are rendered to high-resolution images (300 DPI) using Mozilla's pdf.js engine. Image files are used directly.
2. Recognition — Each page image is processed by Tesseract.js, which identifies text regions, recognizes individual characters, and assembles words and paragraphs. The engine reports confidence scores for each detected text block.
3. Output — Extracted text is displayed with per-page confidence scores. You can copy text to clipboard, download as a plain text file, or generate a searchable PDF with invisible text overlay.

Supported Languages

PDFJolt OCR supports 20 languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, Arabic, Hindi, Turkish, Vietnamese, Thai, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian. Language packs are loaded on demand from the Tesseract.js CDN — only the language you select is downloaded.

Output Options

Plain Text

Copy extracted text directly to your clipboard or download it as a .txt file. Perfect for pasting into documents, spreadsheets, or emails. Each page is separated by a clear page break marker.

Searchable PDF

Generate a PDF that looks identical to the original but has an invisible text layer overlaid on each page. This means you can search for specific words, select and copy text, and use the PDF in workflows that require text extraction. The original page images are preserved at full quality.

Understanding Confidence Scores

Tesseract.js assigns a confidence score (0-100%) to each detected text block. PDFJolt displays these scores so you can assess the accuracy of the extraction:

• 90-100% (green) — High confidence. The text is almost certainly correct.
• 70-89% (amber) — Medium confidence. Review the output for potential errors, especially with handwritten text or poor scan quality.
• Below 70% (red) — Low confidence. The source image may be blurry, rotated, or contain handwriting that OCR struggles with. Consider rescanning at higher quality.

Tips for Better OCR Results

• Scan at 300 DPI or higher — Higher resolution gives the OCR engine more detail to work with.
• Ensure good contrast — Dark text on a light background produces the best results.
• Straighten the document — Skewed or rotated text significantly reduces accuracy.
• Choose the correct language — The OCR engine uses language-specific dictionaries to improve accuracy.
• Avoid complex layouts — Multi-column layouts, tables, and mixed text/image content are more challenging for OCR.

PDFJolt OCR vs Other OCR Tools

Feature	PDFJolt	Adobe Acrobat	Google Drive	Online OCR
Price	Free	$19.99/mo	Free	Free (limited)
Privacy	Files never uploaded	Cloud processing	Google servers	Server upload
Languages	20	30+	200+	40+
Searchable PDF	Yes	Yes	No	No
Confidence Scores	Yes	No	No	No
Works Offline	Yes	Desktop only	No	No
Account Required	No	Yes	Yes	No (limited)
Image Input	PDF + images	PDF only	Images only	Images only

Common Use Cases

Digitizing Paper Documents

Scan paper documents with your phone camera or scanner, then use PDFJolt OCR to extract the text. Convert old contracts, receipts, letters, and records into searchable digital files.

Making Scanned PDFs Searchable

Many PDFs from banks, government agencies, and legal firms are scanned images. Generate a searchable PDF to find specific clauses, amounts, or dates without reading every page.

Extracting Data from Receipts

Photograph receipts and extract the text for expense tracking, bookkeeping, or reimbursement claims.

Archiving Historical Documents

Convert historical documents, old newspapers, or family records into searchable text for research and preservation.

Solve Specific Problems

• Is your PDF not searchable? Learn why and how OCR fixes it.
• Need to extract text from a scanned PDF? Step-by-step guide with tips for better accuracy.
• Getting a PDF upload error because your document isn't recognized? OCR may be the fix.

Privacy & Security

Every major OCR service — Adobe, Google Drive, online OCR tools — processes your documents on their servers. PDFJolt is fundamentally different: Tesseract.js runs entirely in your browser using WebAssembly. Your scanned documents never leave your device. No server upload, no cloud storage, no data collection, no account required. This makes PDFJolt the safest choice for OCR on confidential documents.