Recognise the text inside a scanned PDF and get it back two ways: a searchable copy that looks identical to your scan, and the plain text ready to copy. It all runs in your browser with Tesseract: nothing is uploaded.
GigAI OCR PDF makes scanned PDFs searchable in your browser: pages render locally, tesseract.js reads the words, and an invisible text layer is placed under the untouched page image - so the scan looks identical but becomes selectable and searchable. Languages are stackable (e.g. English + German). Nothing is uploaded.
A scanned PDF is really just a picture of a page: you can see the words, but you can't search, select or copy them. GigAI's OCR PDF fixes that by running Tesseract (a mature open-source recognition engine) directly in your browser tab. It rasterises each page, reads the characters, and rebuilds your PDF with an invisible text layer laid precisely over the original scan, so the file looks exactly the same but is now fully searchable. You also get the raw extracted text to copy in one click. The first time you use a language, its recognition model (a few megabytes) downloads to your browser and is cached for next time. Because everything happens on your device, even confidential contracts, receipts and records never leave your computer.
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Drop in the PDF you want to make searchable, or click to browse. Image-only scans and photographed documents are exactly what OCR is for.
Pick the language the document is written in so Tesseract loads the right model. On first use that model downloads to your browser and is then cached.
Start recognition and watch the progress bar move page by page. Larger documents and higher accuracy take a little longer, it's your CPU doing the work.
Save the searchable PDF, or copy the extracted text from the panel. Not quite right? Try a different language or a cleaner scan and run it again.
Tesseract reads the actual letters off each scanned page, so 'blurry image' becomes text you can search, select, copy and index. Not just a picture.
Your scan is preserved pixel-for-pixel. We lay a transparent, selectable text layer over each page, positioned word by word, so the file looks identical but is searchable.
Choose the document's language so Tesseract loads the matching model: English, French, German, Spanish and more, each tuned for that script's characters.
Alongside the searchable PDF you get the plain recognised text in a panel, ready to copy into a doc, spreadsheet or note in a single click.
Recognition happens in your browser with WebAssembly. Your PDF is never uploaded, a genuine advantage for contracts, IDs, medical notes and anything private.
Once OCR runs, Ctrl+F actually finds words inside your former image-only PDF. No more scrolling page by page hunting for a clause or figure.
Unlike server OCR services, recognition runs locally. The model downloads to you. Your document never travels the other way, so sensitive scans stay private.
You don't have to choose. Download the searchable PDF for archiving and sharing, and copy the extracted text when you just need the words themselves.
No account or quota. After the first-use model download, the language stays cached in your browser, so repeat runs start instantly, even offline.
From quick one-off fixes to daily workflows, see how people put this tool to use.
Turn a scanned, signed agreement into a searchable PDF so you can jump straight to a clause, effective date or party name instead of reading every page.
Extract the text from a photocopied paper or library scan so you can copy exact quotations into your essay and cite them without retyping by hand.
Run OCR across scanned expense paperwork so supplier names, totals and dates become searchable and your archive is finally findable, not just stored.
Accepts PDF, and produces PDF and TXT, all processed locally in your browser.
Turn a PDF into an editable Microsoft Word (.docx) document, text extracted into clean, editable paragraphs, entirely in your browser with no upload.
Turn every page of a PDF into a JPG or PNG image, right in your browser. Pick a quality, preview the pages, and download them all as a ZIP.
Shrink a PDF's file size right in your browser. Pick a compression level, see exactly how much you saved, and download. No uploads, no watermark.
Hand-pick the exact pages you want and save them as a brand-new PDF. Multi-select from live thumbnails, then download: free and 100% in your browser.
Rebuild a PDF that won't open, fixes the broken structure most damaged files actually have, in your browser, and reports exactly what came back.
Stamp page numbers onto a PDF in your browser. Pick the corner, choose a bare number or a 'Page X of Y' label, set the start number, font size and margin, and skip a cover page. Real selectable text, nothing uploaded.
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Hit a snag? Here are quick fixes for the issues people run into most.
Accuracy depends on the scan. Re-scan or re-photograph the page straight-on, well-lit and at 300 DPI or higher, and make sure you picked the correct language, a mismatched model produces nonsense.
The very first time you use a language, its recognition model downloads to your browser (a few megabytes). That happens once. After it's cached, later runs in that language begin immediately.
OCR re-embeds each page image plus a text layer, so the file can grow. Run the result through our Compress PDF tool to shrink it. The invisible text layer is tiny and stays intact.
Higher-resolution scans read far better than screenshots. Aim for 300 DPI so letters have enough detail for Tesseract to recognise.
Straighten and de-skew crooked pages before OCR. Text on a tilted line is much harder for the engine to read accurately.
Pick the single language that matches the document. If it's genuinely bilingual, run it once per language and keep the cleaner result.
For a purely photographic scan, OCR first to add searchable text, then compress. Do it in that order so the text layer survives.
OCR runs entirely in your browser with tesseract.js (WebAssembly). Your PDF is read, recognised and rebuilt on your device and is never uploaded. Only the open-source language model is downloaded to you, and it's cached locally, your document travels nowhere and nothing is stored or logged.
Free, private and instant. OCR PDF runs right in your browser.
