You have an image -- a photograph of a document, a screenshot of text, a scan from a physical page -- and you need the text from it in a format you can search, copy, paste, and...
Open OCRPull text out of any image.
Drop photo, screenshot, or scan. JPG, PNG supported.
OCR analyzes and recognizes characters.
Copy to clipboard or download as text file.
Choose a PDF from your device. Drag and drop or click to browse. Your file stays on your computer.
Your browser handles all the work using JavaScript. Nothing is uploaded to any server. Processing is instant.
Save the processed file to your device. That's it — no account, no email, no waiting.
The images people run through OCR are disproportionately sensitive: photographs of tax forms, screenshots of bank account pages, pictures of medical prescriptions, scans of legal documents, images of identification cards. The text visible in these images is exactly the kind of information that warrants careful handling.
Server-based OCR tools require uploading the image for processing. The full image -- with every word, number, and piece of personal data visible in it -- is transmitted to a third party's server, analyzed there, and the extracted text is sent back.
ModernPDF's OCR processes the image locally in your browser. The image pixels are analyzed on your device, characters are recognized by the OCR engine running in your browser, and the extracted text is presented for you to copy or download. The sensitive content in your image never exists on any external system.
The OCR tool supports all common image formats including JPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, and WebP. Images from phone cameras, desktop scanners, screenshot tools, and web downloads all work. For best results, use the highest resolution image available.
Accuracy depends heavily on image quality. Clear, well-lit photographs of printed text on clean backgrounds achieve 95% accuracy or higher. Handwritten text, low-resolution images, poor lighting, unusual fonts, and complex layouts may require manual correction of the extracted text.
For multi-page PDF documents, use Scanned PDF to Text which processes every page and adds a searchable text layer to the entire document. The single-image OCR tool on this page is optimized for individual images.
OCR supports English and most Latin-script European languages with high accuracy. Support for CJK scripts (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) and other non-Latin writing systems is available to Pro subscribers.
OCR is a Pro feature available to subscribers at $9 per month or $49 per year. The Pro subscription includes unlimited OCR processing alongside all other Pro features including AI Translation, larger file support, and unlimited daily tasks.