Can't select, search or edit text in a scanned PDF
A scan has no real text, only a picture of it, so Edit text and search find nothing. Run OCR PDF to add a searchable text layer, or Edit scanned PDF to recognize the text and then correct it in the editor.
Updated 2 min read Counts toward ocr pages
You'll see one of these in the editor: No editable text here. This part of the page may be a scan or an image — use Text to type over it, or run OCR first. or, in search, This document has no searchable text — it is probably a scan. The full OCR walkthrough is in Make a scanned PDF editable and searchable.
Pick the right fix
| You want to… | Use |
|---|---|
| Fill blanks or add words on top | The Text tool (T). No OCR needed. |
| Search, select and copy the text | OCR PDF |
| Change words printed on the scan | Edit scanned PDF |
| Read handwriting or messy tables better | AI OCR (also uses AI credits) |
| Fix a crooked, grey or speckled scan first | Restore scanned PDF |
Edit a scan
Step 1: Upload the scan
Open Edit scanned PDF and choose the PDF, or a JPG, PNG or TIFF photo of the page.
Step 2: Pick every language on the page
A wrong language is the most common cause of misread accents and characters.
Step 3: Run OCR
Each recognized page counts toward your OCR pages: 5 without an account, 20 a month on Free and 1,000 on Pro.
Step 4: Correct the text
The document opens in the editor with Edit text selected. Click a recognized line and type.
- Handwriting, stamps over text and low-resolution scans are recognized poorly. Try AI OCR, or rescan at a higher resolution.
- Tables come out as lines of text; columns aren't rebuilt.
- Rotate sideways pages first with Rotate PDF.
- AI chat and summaries need text too, so run OCR on a scan before using them.
Does OCR change how the page looks?
No. It adds an invisible text layer and leaves the image as scanned.
OCR says I ran out of pages.
Your monthly OCR allowance is used up. Run OCR on only the pages you need, wait for the monthly reset, or upgrade.
Search finds some words but not others.
Those words were misread. Check the language, clean the page with Restore scanned PDF, and run OCR again.
Tools in this article
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Related articles
- Fonts look different, or characters show as “?” after editingPDFBetter can't reuse the fonts embedded in a PDF, so edited and added text uses the closest of three standard families (sans, serif, mono). Characters no available font can draw come out as “?”. Pick the closest family and size, or cover and retype the whole line.
- Make a scanned PDF editable and searchable with OCROpen the OCR PDF tool, upload the scan, pick the Languages and pages and click Recognize text. The result looks identical but has a searchable text layer; click Open in the editor to change its text. OCR is counted per page recognized.
- Edit the existing text in a PDFSwitch the editor from Fill out to Edit PDF (or press E), click a line of the document's text and type. The new text is drawn over a cover patch in the closest standard font; the old characters stay in the file unless you redact them.
- Redact a PDF permanentlyChoose Redact (in the Cover group), drag over everything to remove, then click Apply redactions and confirm. Text, images and drawings under each mark are removed from the file, not just covered, and the affected pages become images.