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That one website that turns a scanned PDF into text you can search and copy

Why it's the pick

PDF24 runs text recognition on scans and photos in more than 100 languages and gives back a searchable PDF (or PDF/A), free with no account and no page limits. It is ad-supported, files go to its servers in Germany and are deleted after an hour, and big scans can take a while.

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2 good alternatives

Sejda OCR sejda.com Searchable PDF or plain text; 10 pages, 3 tasks an hour free Free tierNo signup Link checked Oct 9
Online2PDF online2pdf.com Converts files to PDF with an optional text-recognition step FreeNo signup Link checked Oct 9

PDF24 is also the pick for merges PDFs, blacks out private information in a PDF for good, turns a pile of photos into one PDF, turns each page of a PDF into an image, reorders the pages of a PDF, puts a password on a PDF, crops the white margins off a PDF.

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