PDF & Image OCR — what it does
Reads the text in scanned PDFs and images using on-device OCR, with trained data for English, Hindi and Urdu. Powered by Tesseract.js, so a scanned invoice is recognised on your machine without the image being sent to an OCR API.
How to use PDF & Image OCR
- Open a scanned PDF or an image file.
- Choose the recognition language — English, Hindi or Urdu — matching the document actually improves accuracy.
- Run OCR and wait for the progress indicator; large PDFs take a while because recognition is real work, done locally.
- Check the recognised text against the page, especially numbers, and copy it out.
Worked example: a Hindi property document that must be searchable
A registry document is a photo-quality scan in Hindi. Extracting text from it with a generic tool produces nothing, because the page is an image. Running OCR with Hindi selected turns the page into searchable text, so a specific survey number can be found with the browser's find box instead of by eye across forty pages.
At a glance
| Input | Scanned PDFs and images (photos, screenshots) |
|---|---|
| Languages | English, Hindi, Urdu |
| Engine | Tesseract.js, running in your browser |
| Where it runs | On-device — no image is uploaded to an OCR service |
| Accuracy depends on the scan | Straight, well-lit, 300 DPI pages recognise well; a phone photo at an angle will need correction in the text |
Frequently asked questions
- What is PDF & Image OCR?
- Extract text from scanned PDFs and images with on-device OCR supporting English, Hindi and Urdu. Powered by Tesseract.js — nothing leaves your browser.
- Is PDF & Image OCR free to use?
- Yes — PDF & Image OCR is free to use, with no sign-up, no install and no account.
- Does PDF & Image OCR upload or store my data?
- No — PDF & Image OCR runs entirely in your browser, so your text, files and results never leave your device.
- Do I need to install anything to use PDF & Image OCR?
- No — it works in any modern browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari) with no downloads, accounts or plugins.
- Why did it misread numbers and account numbers?
- Digit recognition is the hardest part of OCR, and confusion between 1/7, 0/O and 5/S is normal. Always verify amounts, GSTINs and account numbers against the original image — treat OCR text as a search aid, not as the authoritative record.
- Can I recognise a mixed Hindi and English page?
- Yes, but pick the language that dominates the page. Mixed-script pages are where OCR accuracy drops, and running the page twice — once per language — is usually more reliable than expecting one pass to handle both.