OCR & Conversion
How to Convert a Scanned PDF to Word
A scanned PDF often contains page images instead of editable text, so OCR is usually required before a useful Word conversion.
What is an image-only PDF?
A scan can look exactly like a normal text document even though the words are pixels inside an image. You may notice that you cannot select individual words.
Why OCR matters
Optical character recognition analyzes the page image and attempts to identify letters and words. OCR can create a text layer that downstream tools can use.
Convert after OCR
Once a scan contains recognized text, PDF-to-Word conversion has a better chance of producing editable paragraphs. Complex tables and handwriting can still require manual correction.
Proofread recognized text
OCR is not perfect. Names, numbers, low-quality scans and unusual fonts should be checked carefully before relying on the converted document.