What Are Scanned PDFs?
Scanned PDFs contain images of pages rather than actual text data. They're created when physical documents are scanned. OCR is required to extract the text from these image-based pages.
How TextExtract Handles Scanned PDFs
TextExtract automatically detects whether a PDF contains real text or scanned images. Text PDFs are parsed instantly on your device. Scanned PDFs are processed page-by-page with AI-powered OCR.
Tips for Better Results
- Scan at 300 DPI or higher for best OCR accuracy
- Ensure pages are straight and well-lit
- Use our built-in formatting tools to clean up the output
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if a PDF is scanned or native?
Try selecting text in the PDF. If you can highlight individual words, it's a native PDF. If clicking and dragging selects the entire page as an image, it's a scanned PDF. TextExtract detects this automatically — just upload the file and it handles both types.
Can I OCR a multi-page scanned PDF?
Yes. TextExtract processes up to 50 pages per PDF. Each page is OCR'd individually and the results are combined into a single text output. You can track progress in real-time as each page is processed.
What scan quality do I need for good OCR results?
300 DPI is the gold standard for OCR accuracy. Scans at 200 DPI work well for clean documents. Below 150 DPI, accuracy drops noticeably, especially for small fonts. TextExtract can still extract text from low-quality scans, but higher resolution always produces better results.
Does TextExtract store my PDF files?
No. All uploaded files are processed in real-time and immediately discarded. TextExtract has zero data retention — your documents are never stored, logged, or accessible after processing.