Your Ultimate Guide on How to Search in a Scanned PDF

Can't figure out how to search in a scanned PDF that says, 'This page contains only images'? Or you've tried to search for words using the Windows Find feature or CTRL + F, but nothing worked? You must have been searching in a scanned PDF. If you're wondering how to search in scanned PDF documents, we've got you covered! Dive in to explore how.

How to Search for Words in a Scanned PDF?

The thing is, scanned documents don't have any text in them! Since it's just a picture of the document, there's no actual text for Windows to index.

To make your PDF searchable, you have to run text recognition to make the content on the page searchable and editable. You can use any OCR (Optical Character Recognition) function software. It goes through the scanned document, identifies anything resembling a letter or a word, and turns it into actual text.

Multiple PDF editors offer this ability, but we recommend UPDF - your all-in-one PDF solution! It's an AI-powered OCR feature that converts your scanned PDFs, paper documents, and images to searchable and editable PDFs with three output layouts to make it interactive and fulfill all your needs. Get to know more about UPDF's OCR feature by reading this article. Download UPDF first before we get started to introduce the instructions.

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Here are some impressive features of this OCR software:

Up to 99% Accuracy: UPDF's advanced OCR technology offers high-accuracy results!
The Highest OCR Speed: Who doesn't want to save time? UPDF understands this; thus, its conversion is super swift relative to the competitors.
Small Size Output with High Quality: The size of the converted PDF document is much smaller than its original!
Supports 38 Languages: It also supports bilingual documents and allows you to select multiple language sets.

Apart from all this, it also reads, organizes, and annotates your PDF and can convert scanned PDFs of any size! So, what are you waiting for? Follow the simple steps below on how to search words in scanned PDFs and get your issue resolved now! All it takes is a few simple steps, and you'll be done quickly!

Step 1: Open PDF and Access to the OCR Icon

Click on "Open File" to import the PDF. You can also use the shortcut Ctrl + or Cmd + O.

Click the "OCR" option in "Tools" on the left toolbar. (If this is your first time using this feature, it will lead you to download a plugin. Download in the following window, and wait for it to install.)

Step 2: Turn the Scanned PDF into Searchable

You can choose Editable PDF, Text and Picture Only, Searchable PDF Only. If you want to edit the scanned pdf, you need to choose the "Editable PDF", as this converts scanned documents into editable.

You must also decide on Document Language that matches your source language, and select the Pape Range.

Click on the "Convert" option, then select a location where you want to save the file and click "Save".

Step 3: Search Words in the Scanned PDF

After performing OCR, the searchable PDF file will be open automatically in UPDF. Now, you can search in the scanned PDF for your desired words by clicking Ctrl + F or the Search icon in the top right corner.

Enter the word you want to search and it will show all the results on this document. You can click any result to jump to the page directly. This is how you find words in PDF with ease.

To learn more about how to ocr a pdf, watch the below video guide.

Bonus

UPDF not only supports searching in scanned PDFs but also serves as a comprehensive PDF editor with AI integration. Interested users can explore our feature pages via the top navigation bar. You can also read our article to see how UPDF compares to Adobe Acrobat. Plus, we offer a perpetual license at a price much lower than Adobe Acrobat >>

Tip: Which Layout Should I Choose When Performing OCR?

For Searchable PDFs, you have to choose a proper layout depending on which purpose or situation you're using the layout for. By using the available options, you can choose either of the following:

Editable PDF

This mode keeps both the text it figures out and the pictures, then packs them into a PDF that’s usually way smaller. Just heads-up, though—when you look at it, it might not look exactly like the original page, there could be tiny layout or color shifts here and there.

Text and Picture Only

This mode hangs on to every background picture and illustration from the original file and then just slaps the recognized text right on top. Because of that, the PDFs you get are usually chunkier—bigger file sizes—than the ones made with the Text-and-pictures-only option. And if you look closely, the final doc might look a teeny bit different from the original, nothing huge, but you’ll notice it.

Searchable PDF Only

With this setting, the actual page picture sticks around, and the text that got recognized just slips into a see-through layer right under that picture. To your eyes, the file looks almost exactly like the original one—no big difference at all.

FAQs on How to Search in a Scanned PDF

Still, have some questions on how to search for words on a scanned PDF. Don't worry. We've got you covered.

Why Can't I Search for a Scanned PDF?

When you scan a document, your scanner captures the pages as a flat image, which means there's no text that Windows can index or any PDF viewer can read. You'll have to use UPDF's OCR feature to convert your scanned document to a readable format as we explained above in this article.

Can I Use Ctrl F on Scanned Documents?

No. This Windows Find feature only works on documents that have readable text. You can only use this feature by downloading an OCR technology-supporting software, like UPDF, that converts the scan into a searchable PDF.

Why Can't I Use Ctrl F on my PDF?

The Find feature does not work on documents or PDFs with images only, like in the case of scanned documents. These images do not have text that Windows can recognize.

Conclusion

So, you can't figure out how to search for a word in a scanned PDF document? No problem - UPDF is your ultimate solution. Its OCR function is easily accessible and straightforward to use, and it can even detect text in a blurry scanned document, something that even other software struggles with! You can convert any image into detectable text with its advanced MRC-based image compression algorithm or change the PDF to an image-only doc!

What are you waiting for? Download UPDF now so you can effortlessly interact with your PDFs and have a much smoother experience with its brilliant AI tools. You can also upgrade to the premium version to unlock all the features without any limitations. This completes our guidelines on how to search in a scanned PDF.