Screenshot to Searchable PDF
Turn screenshots into a PDF you can search, select, and copy text from. OCR runs in your browser, so your images are never uploaded.
How to turn screenshots into a searchable PDF
- Add your screenshots. Drag the cards to set the page order, and rotate any image that's sideways.
- Under Text language, pick the language in your screenshots. Add up to three if they mix languages.
- Select Download searchable PDF. Each page shows your screenshot and carries the recognized text as an invisible text layer.
- Only need the words? Select Extract text only, then copy the text or save it as a .txt file.
What makes a PDF searchable?
A screenshot saved as a PDF is still a picture of text, so search and copy find nothing. That's an image-only PDF. A searchable PDF also carries the words as real text.
OCR reads the letters in each image. The tool then places every recognized word on an invisible text layer, right over the word you see. The page looks the same, but Cmd/Ctrl+F, text selection, and copy now work in common PDF viewers.
Have a long series of pages to capture first? See how to save screenshots as a PDF on a Mac.
Frequently asked questions
Is this screenshot to searchable PDF converter free?
Yes. There's no signup and no watermark. You can convert up to 80 screenshots at a time.
Are my screenshots uploaded to a server?
No. Text recognition runs in your browser with the Tesseract OCR engine. On the first run, your browser downloads the engine and language data (several MB) from a public CDN. Your images stay on your device.
How do I copy text from a screenshot?
Add the screenshot and select Extract text only. The recognized text appears below the tool, ready to copy or save as a .txt file. If you also want the image, download the searchable PDF and select the text in your PDF viewer.
Which languages can it recognize?
English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese. Pick up to three when a screenshot mixes languages. Fewer languages read faster.
How accurate is the text recognition?
Clear screenshots of printed text usually read well, and small screenshots are enlarged before reading. Tiny or low-contrast text, handwriting, equations, and complex tables can still come out wrong, so check names, numbers, and quotes against the image.
Will the PDF look different from my screenshots?
No. Each page shows your screenshot, and the recognized text is invisible. Choose Fit to make each page the size of its image, or A4 or US Letter if you plan to print.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. It runs in current mobile browsers, and you can pick screenshots straight from your photos. Reading many pages takes longer on a phone, because OCR runs on your device.
Capturing pages one by one?
Shotomatic captures screenshot series on your Mac and can export them as one searchable PDF.