How to Make PDF Searchable with OCR?

 

Sometimes, when you wanted to search a PDF file for its content, you failed. The whole file probably has been saved as one big image, which means it is a scanned PDF file. You can't retrieve its contents directly unless you convert PDF to searchable PDF. How to solve this problem? A PDF reader with OCR feature will be your best choice, it enables you to convert scanned PDF to searchable PDF.

1. What is OCR?

2. How to Convert PDF to Searchable PDF on Mac?

3. More Features of PDF Reader Pro for Mac

 

What is OCR?

OCR is a common diminutive of optical character recognition. Optical character recognition (OCR) is the conversion of images into text. It is widely used as a form of data entry from printed paper data records, such as passport documents, invoices, bank statements, computerized receipts, business cards, mail, printouts of static-data, or any suitable documentation.

OCR is a common method of digitizing printed texts so that it can be electronically edited, searched, stored more compactly, displayed online, and used in machine processes. Some PDF readers adopted OCR technology to identify scanned PDF files, and convert scanned PDF to searchable PDF files. PDF Reader Pro is one of them. Read with PDF Reader Pro For Free Today.

 

How to Convert PDF to Searchable PDF on Mac?

To reverse this problem of converting PDF to searchable PDF, you can use the OCR feature of PDF Reader Pro to extract the texts into an editable PDF or TXT file, and then you can search its content. PDF Reader Pro is an all-featured PDF tool for Mac users,  and you can use it to convert and extract texts into content within PDF files.

 

Steps to convert scanned PDF to searchable PDF on Mac with PDF Reader Pro:

Step 1. Click the "Open Files" to choose the scanned PDF file you want to convert, or just drag and drop to open it. If you input some word in the search box and search at this time, you will get nothing since the scanned PDF file doesn’t support searching text content directly.

 

 

Step 2. Then, you need to choose the “OCR” feature, PDF Reader Pro will allow you to enter the OCR interface. Just click the "OCR" button, and the scanned PDF file will start to be converted.

 

Step 3. After the conversion, you can get all contents from the scanned PDF file. Choose to Save as PDF, and you will get a converted PDF file. And you can also choose to Save as TXT.

 

Step 4. Now, let us check that the scanned PDF file is converted to searchable PDF file or not. From the search results, we can see it clearly, converting scanned PDF to searchable PDF is successful.

 

You can easily convert your PDF to searchable PDF by doing an optical character recognition with PDF Reader Pro. OCR is a mature function for PDF Reader Pro, which supports to turn scanned documents and images into fully editable, selectable and searchable PDFs in over 50 languages, and it can keep 99%+ accuracy. No matter what format your scanned PDF file is, PDF Reader Pro will make it searchable. Now, PDF Reader Pro provides a free trial, you can click the 'Free Download' to try its OCR for free.

 

More Features of PDF Reader Pro for Mac

Furthermore, PDF Reader Pro offers many more features. It also is a powerful PDF editor, converter, PDF password remover, PDF compressor and more for Mac users. More features about PDF Reader Pro includes:

* PDF Reader & Annotator

PDF Reader Pro is absolutely your best PDF reader and viewer for Mac, it will bring an advanced reading experience for you. You can read and search your annotations or comments on PDFs with ease, and comfort your eyes by switching from day mode to dark mode according to different environments. In case you have more than one reading task at one time, Split View Mode enables you to handle multi-tasks without scrolling pages. And you can annotate and markup PDFs using a complete set of commenting tools. The different colors and types of annotation tools can distinguish various comments, which help review the key points in your pdf files.

* PDF Editor

PDF Reader Pro is an editor with powerful functions. With it, you can change the original text without leaving your PDF. Easily edit, add, delete, cut, paste and insert texts. It’s convenient to change the font size and text color.

You are enabled to edit PDF pages on Mac, such as rotating, inserting blank pages and removing unwanted pages to custom your own PDF. Moreover, you can split or merge PDFs. Divide one file into multiple PDF files, or combine multiple files and arrange them in one compact PDF.

* PDF Converter

PDF Reader Pro is a powerful converting tool for Mac users to convert PDFs to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Text, iWork, Image, JPG, PNG and HTML without losing fonts and formatting.

* PDF Form Filler

PDF Reader Pro provides a powerful form builder to help generate customized forms, which allows you to fill out on devices, submit it, and share the information automatically. And it can help you to fill PDF forms and highlight form fields easily. PDF Reader Pro also allows you to sign PDFs on your Mac with your cursor mouse, MacBook's trackpad, Keyboard or Images.

* PDF Compressor

PDF Reader Pro is also a PDF compressor, which enables you to compress bulky PDFs and shrink its size and send compact documents to your partners or colleagues.

* PDF Password Remover

If you have a secured PDF file, with PDF Reader Pro, you can decrypt PDF protections and restrictions on printing, editing and copying. PDF Password Remover is an easy-to-use PDF security remover.

More details of PDF Reader Pro for Mac please click the hyperlink to get, and you can click the 'Free Download' button to have a free trial. Believe me, try it out by yourself, you will learn more about its power.