2026-09-08
A scanned PDF is just an image of text as far as your computer is concerned — no selectable, searchable, or copyable content until OCR (optical character recognition) reads it and rebuilds real text. Most tools that do this upload your scan to a server to run the recognition.
| Tool | On-device OCR | Works on scanned + mixed PDFs | Runs fully in your browser | Free file size limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| iLoveDevTools | Yes | Yes | Yes | None |
| Adobe Acrobat online | No (server-side OCR) | Yes | No | Limited without a subscription |
OCR PDF uses a hybrid approach: it pulls existing text directly where a PDF already has it, and runs on-device OCR only on the pages that are actually scanned images — all inside your browser tab, so a scanned document (often the most sensitive kind: IDs, medical records, signed forms) is never uploaded to recognize its text.
Adobe's OCR is thorough and well-integrated with its broader PDF toolset, and generally produces high-accuracy results. It requires uploading the file for server-side processing, and full functionality is tied to an Acrobat subscription.
For scanned documents you'd rather not send to a server, iLoveDevTools does the recognition locally at no cost. Adobe Acrobat is a strong choice if you're already inside its subscription ecosystem.