Make PDF searchable
Scanned pages are just images to a computer. We recognize the text on them and add an invisible, selectable text layer on top.
Drop your PDF here
Scanned pages will be run through on-device text recognition — this can take a moment
What this does
SubmitReady checks whether your PDF already has real text (many do, even if it looks scanned). For pages that don't, it runs on-device optical character recognition and adds the recognized words as invisible, positioned text over the original image — so the page looks identical but becomes selectable and searchable.
When you need it
Needed when a portal requires a "searchable PDF" or when accessibility/archival requirements call for real text rather than a flat scanned image.
How it works
Text recognition runs entirely on your device using a WebAssembly OCR engine — the recognized text never leaves your browser. Recognition quality depends on scan clarity; very low-resolution or heavily skewed scans may have lower accuracy. Processing can take longer on large documents, since each page is analyzed individually.
Privacy
Your document and its content are never uploaded. The OCR engine itself (a generic language model, not your data) is loaded once from SubmitReady's own servers, not a third party.
Frequently asked questions
- Will this change how my document looks?
- No — the added text is invisible. Visually, the page is unchanged; it just becomes selectable and searchable.
- What if my PDF is already searchable?
- We detect that automatically and skip pages that already have real text.
- How accurate is the recognized text?
- Accuracy depends on scan quality. Clear, high-resolution scans of printed text recognize best.