Here are 3 free software to convert scanned PDF to searchable PDF.
We have many tools to extract text from PDF or fetch text content of a scanned PDF file. However, those tools can’t help us generate the output in the same PDF format. Therefore, I have found these free software that can convert scanned PDF to searchable PDF.
Most of these software support multipage PDF files. Each individual software has interesting as well as unique features. You can bulk convert scanned PDF files, extract embedded media from PDF, and more.
Let’s start with the first scan to searchable PDF converter software in this list.
ORPALIS PDF OCR
ORPALIS PDF OCR (free version) is a powerful software and very useful for converting scanned PDF to searchable PDF file. Even though the free edition has a few limitations, yet it is a good choice as it can bulk convert your scanned PDF documents to searchable PDFs.
The software also supports multithreading to process multiple pages of PDF files together. Apart from that, this software supports multiple OCR languages: English, German, Italian, French, and Spanish. So, if your scanned PDF is in any of these languages, it can make it a searchable PDF. All you need to do is select the OCR language and press Start button.
You can also read the full review.
Bytescout PDF Multitool
Bytescout PDF Multitool is one of my favorite software to convert scanned PDF to searchable PDF. The software is very simple but can process one scanned PDF at a time. The conversion speed is really good.
You can convert scanned PDF in just three steps:
- Open the scanned PDF and click that “Make PDF document searchable” option available in the left sidebar.
- A new window will open where you can set the language for conversion and resolution. You can also set whether you want to convert only one page or a page range.
- Finally, you can click Process Document button to process your scanned PDF and save it as searchable PDF to the output folder of your choice.
As you see, it is really easy to convert scanned PDF to searchable PDF using this software. Therefore I can recommend you to give it a try when you have to convert a large multipage scanned PDF file.
This software has many other interesting features too. You can use it to extract embedded audio and video from PDF file, convert PDF, extract tables from PDF, and more. You should definitely try it.
PDF OCR X
PDF OCR X (free community edition) is another software to convert scanned PDF to searchable PDF. However, this free version has a few limitations. It supports multipage PDF files, but only the first page can be converted into searchable PDF. That means, the software is good for single page scanned PDF conversion.
There is one unique feature of this software. It can convert scanned PDF to plain text file. The list of converted PDFs is visible on the interface of this software. You can press Open button to view any output PDF you have converted using this software.
Full review is here.
The Verdict:
For me, Bytescout PDF Multitool is really good. It is so because along with converting multiple scanned PDF files, it has many unique features. However, the best one is ORPALIS PDF OCR. It supports bulk processing which is indeed a good feature.
