Guides · Practical guide · updated October 22, 2026

How to extract text from a scanned PDF with OCR

OCR turns images of letters into real text that you can edit, search, copy and translate. In Indy PDF Studio recognition runs on your device and is free during the introductory period.

Try it free in the editor

Step by step

Open the scanned PDF or image in the editor.
In the Page panel choose the right OCR language, for example Czech + English or another language that matches the document.
Scans can be recognized automatically in the background. After changing the language use Run OCR on this page again or Run OCR on the entire PDF again.
Click into the recognized text with the Edit tool and correct any mistakes.
Export the result. To continue later, also save the project as an OPDF file with Save project.

When you need OCR

If a page is just an image, opening it in a PDF viewer will not make the text editable or searchable. Digitally created PDFs usually already contain a text layer and do not need OCR.

Better recognition results

Use a sharp, straight scan with readable text and pick the language of the original. Always double-check accents, dates, decimal separators and digits mistaken for letters. Tables and multi-column layouts need a closer look.

Supported OCR languages

OCR is available for Czech, English, German, Polish, Slovak, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese, including vertical Japanese text.

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