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How to Recognise Text in a PDF Using OCR Online

Easy apply optical character recognition (OCR) to your PDF by following these steps:

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  1. Drag and drop your PDF into the grey-dotted drop zone or click the Select a file button at the bottom of the drop zone.
  2. Choose a PDF document that you want to add optical character recognition to, so that you can easily search and interact with text.
  3. Once the file is uploaded, Adobe Acrobat will be able to use optical character recognition to scan the text in your document.
  4. Sign in to your Adobe Account to share your PDF or download it.

Try Our Free PDF OCR Online Tool

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High-quality character recognition

Our online Acrobat optical text recognition tool lets you easily search your text and even highlight any recognised sentences or words.

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OCR lets Adobe Acrobat use text recognition to search for words or key phrases saving you time.

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Improved accessibility

Optical character recognition lets you use screen readers, greatly increasing accessibility.

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No need to install extra OCR software

It may sound complex but don't worry, you can access our suite of Adobe Acrobat tools on a variety of browsers. That means no downloads or installs to use our optical text recognition.

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Trusted security and privacy

As creators of the PDF format, you can trust Adobe to keep your files safe. We use encryption to protect your data, and delete any uploaded files if you're not signed in.

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The best online optical character reader

We've been innovating the PDF format since its incept, which means you can trust the quality of our tools.

Questions? We have answers.

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  • Store your files online to access from any device

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