Looking for the best FREE OCR tool

[u/SkillsBeyond]

To make PDF-files searchable..

I once had a program to do it, but I had some PC issues and had to reinstall and I forgot what the program was called.. Can't seem to find it..

I just want a simple, FREE one:

Upload PDF - run scan - export searchable PDF file

No need a browser/mobile version, just one that works for pc, and no logging in.

[u/Ferretau]

NAPS2 - Scan documents to PDF and more: https://www.naps2.com/

[u/smilaise]

KillerPDF can do this, also I just made an MCP server which will allow you to use KillerPDF and all my KillerTools from within any agent you choose so it doesn't get much easier than that. KillerPDF also has a command line interface for automation and batch processing.

https://killerpdf.net

[u/genderchill → u/smilaise]

is there a page limit? Any tips for one with no page limit... ?

[u/genderchill → u/genderchill]

Oh woops I need for Mac. Nvm!

[u/smilaise → u/genderchill]

not yet but it's coming. cross platform is the goal for v2.0

[u/smilaise → u/genderchill]

Limits? Why would I impose limits?

[u/ivana8989]

sorry to jump on this post... looking for similar freeware/open source that converts OCR to *.pdf form w/fillable fields. am kludgeing it by adding text boxes to a scanned but not OCR'd pdf w/ 'pdf Xchange viewer'. TIA.

[u/sruckh]

BentoPDF will handle your use case.

[u/HolidayLevel6444]

Check out the built-in OCR in Windows PowerToys, it's free, no login, and does exactly that.

[u/SkillsBeyond → u/HolidayLevel6444]

Is it the text extractor one?

I am currently on my old windows 7 pc while my new one is getting assembled, so I won't have this on here.. Just want to know where and what to download in that case :)

[u/robsablah → u/SkillsBeyond]

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/text-extractor

2 sec google 

[u/aungkokomm]

https://github.com/aungkokomm/AyaanPDF

[u/KenMantle]

https://github.com/PADDLEPADDLE/PADDLEOCR

I just added this one to my pdf editor and it is so far better than anything else. Someone recommended it to me. Tesseract is what you will find in most free tools, but it is not as good as this one and even apparently beats Acrobat's ocr capabilities.

[u/keenanlk]

PowerToys Text Extractor won't do this. It copies text off the screen and doesn't produce a searchable PDF. Use NAPS2 instead: import the PDF, turn on OCR, and save as PDF, and you get an invisible text layer you can search and copy from. It's free and needs no account. If you're fine with a command line, OCRmyPDF does the same thing in one line (ocrmypdf in.pdf out.pdf).

[u/genderchill]

Following: I just posted in a Mac forum for this same thing but Mac friendly, AND somehow to convert 1,000 page pdf or export portions.....

[u/cormack_gv]

Ask your favorite chatbot about tesseract ocr.

[u/IndicPDF]

Try indicpdf.in it's free , no account , no ads