How to Edit Scanned PDF Online? (Two Tested Ways)

Having a scanned PDF document is like having pictures with text. When you need to edit text in such documents, it is not the same way  as for searchable and editable PDF documents. However, there are still some online and offline methods to help you edit scanned PDF. However, many of us now do not want to use the offline software, so there, we will show you two ways to edit scanned PDF online.

Part 1. How to Edit a Scanned PDF Document Online Free with Google Drive?

The first online method that you can use for editing scanned PDFs is using Google Drive. Google OCR feature is integrated in Google Drive and whenever you open a scanned PDF with Google Drive in Google Docs, OCR is automatically performed on it, so you get direct editing access. Moreover, this method is free, and it works on all your devices.

However, there is a huge catch here and that’s about format retention. While Google Drive can convert your Scanned PDFs into editable text, it comes with no features to maintain the content formatting in original PDF. Moreover, it skips images in the content making it even more problematic. It might be a good option where there is not a lot of formatting in PDF and content is only text. You can use Google Drive for editing scanned PDF with the following steps:

Step 1: Open Google Drive website in a browser and log in with your account to access your files. Now if you have that scanned PDF already added to Drive then you may move to next step otherwise you can click "+ NEW" button then "File Upload" and upload that scanned PDF to Google Drive.

Step 2: Click "Recent" and your scanned PDF will be on top. Now you must click "More actions" button on that scanned PDF thumbnail (represented by 3 vertical dots). Go to "Open With" then click "Google Docs"

Step 3: Your scanned PDF will take some time to process OCR then it will open in Google Docs where you may edit it like a normal text document. Once you are done editing you can click "File" > "Download" > "PDF" and the edited scanned PDF will be again saved as PDF format.

Also Read: How to Convert Scanned PDF to Editable PDF with OCR - 3 Methods Explained

Part 2. How to Edit a Scanned PDF Document Online Free With iLovePDF and Sedja

Our second method for editing scanned PDF documents involves 2 different tools. One tool will be used for performing OCR on PDFs while second one will be used for editing PDFs. So, this may work online without requiring any installation but the process will take very long because you have to deal with 2 different tools and this process includes uploading then downloading files multiple times.

Another drawback of this method is that when you edit scanned PDF with Sejda you don’t get a great text editing experience. It will usually recognize text incorrectly and give you wrong words. Moreover, sometimes the text will completely change in its fonts and formatting that further ruins the experience. Below are the complete steps for using both these tools to edit a scanned PDF online:

Step 1: Open iLovePDF website on a browser and select its "OCR PDF" tool then you can click "Select PDF File" for uploading a file from your offline storage or getting it directly from Dropbox or Google Drive cloud storage.

Step 2: Click "Apply OCR" button at bottom right to start OCR processing then wait as iLovePDF will automatically initiate your OCR PDF file download on your PC. After your download starts you have to wait again until that download is complete.

Step 3: Once your OCR PDF file completes downloading you will open Sejda website on your browser and pick "Edit" option from "All Tools" dropdown in its interface. Now click "Upload PDF File" and Sejda will take you to its online PDF editor after uploading your PDF file.

Step 4: You can double-click on any text instance to select it and edit as needed. After making all changes click "Apply Changes" button at bottom then Sejda will give you download button for saving edited scanned PDF. You can also save it to Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive to save it in cloud for accessing online.

Part 3. How to Edit a Scanned PDF Document Offline?

Although the 2 online methods discussed above work, they can bring multiple disadvantages along. Some of those disadvantages include requiring a reliable internet connection throughout the process,  secondly, there could be privacy and security concerns for when you upload confidential documents online, thirdly, you will lose your scanned document format, and fourthly, you may get wrong result. Luckily, you can resolve all these problems with UPDF.

UPDF can easily edit your scanned PDFs and provide accurate results with great reliability. To try editing scanned PDFs offline, you must download UPDF right now via the below button.

UPDF is not only a great tool for editing scanned PDFs offline, but it offers multiple other features including:

• UPDF AI for translating, reviewing, summarizing, and writing PDF content.
• Annotation features including highlight, comment, text box, sticky notes, etc.
• Edit PDF with control on text images and links.
• UPDF Cloud for organizing PDFs in dedicated storage and syncing across devices.
• Batch processing for working on PDFs quickly in bulk.
• Merging and splitting PDF documents, and a lot more.

So, if you want to edit scanned PDF documents offline you may follow the steps below with UPDF.

Step 1: Double-click desktop icon of UPDF app to run it then click "Open File" to select and open PDF document that contains scanned content. Click "OCR" > "Perform OCR" button then wait as UPDF will automatically perform OCR then open OCRed file in a new tab within its interface.

Step 2: When the OCRed file opens, you can click "Edit PDF" and select PDF editing tool from top from text, link, and image optionsm to add new contents. Alternatively, you may click t on the existing text or image to edit and get popup menu of editing options. When you are done editing, you can press "Ctrl + S" to save progress.

UPDF brings a complete solution to all your PDF working needs and you can learn further about its capabilities by this wccftech review of UPDF. And the below video tutorial review about UPDF that teaches you everything you can do with UPDF and all its functionalities in detail. Since UPDF promises and provides the best performance in its class you must download it via the below button then purchase UPDF Pro to gain access to all premium features.

Here is the review video of UPDF:

Ending Note

There could be multiple scenarios where you need to edit scanned PDF online like when you are on the go, and you don’t have your computer on you, or you don’t want to install any tool on your device. Remember that the online methods that provide great experience are very rare and the two options we discussed here work, but do come with multiple disadvantages.

That’s where using UPDF will provide you with the best experience with its features and performance. Download UPDF on your Mac and Windows PC to try its scanned PDF editing capabilities.