How to OCR a scanned PDF and make it searchable
Cmd+F doesn't work on scans because there's no text layer. Here's how to add one without changing how the document looks.
A scanned PDF is an image of pages, not text. Cmd+F (or Ctrl+F) returns nothing because there's no text to find. Spotlight, Windows Search, Google Drive — none of them index scans. OCR is the bridge: it adds a hidden text layer aligned with the page image, so the document looks identical but suddenly behaves like a text PDF.
Why this matters more than people realize
An archive you can't search is a haystack with no needle. Most legacy archives — medical records, old contracts, court files — sit as image-only PDFs because that's what scanners produced. OCR turns 'we have it somewhere' into 'we can find it in 10 seconds'.
How to OCR with pdfcraft ai
Upload the scan to AI OCR or Make PDF Searchable. Both add a text layer. Set the language explicitly for cleaner results, especially on mixed-language documents. The output looks pixel-identical to the scan but Cmd+F now works.
Scan quality matters more than the OCR engine
Most of the OCR-quality battle is won at scan time. Scan at 300 DPI grayscale (not color — color is bigger without being more accurate). Scan flat with the page parallel to the platen. Below 200 DPI, accuracy drops fast; below 150 DPI, OCR isn't worth running.
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