Read text from PDF and images - a guide

With a simple program, text can be read from images or PDF files. We show you step by step how to do this in this practical tips guide.

Read text from PDF files - how it works

Below we show you how to read text from PDF files.

1. Download the freeware version from the PDF-XCHange Viewer and install the tool.
2. Start the program after installation and open the desired PDF file from which you want to read text.
3. Click on "OCR" in the top left of the menu bar, the "optical character recognition".
4. Enter the language of the text, the pages on which you want to recognize the text, and the accuracy with which you want the text to be recognized.
5. With good copies, low accuracy is often sufficient and is very fast. If the text is distorted or has a low resolution, the highest accuracy and a little patience are worthwhile.
6. Once the automatic text recognition has been completed, you can simply copy the text using the text selection tool (B) and paste it into a text editor.
7. You can of course now search the file for letters, characters and words.
8. If you click on "File" -> "Save copy as", you can save the PDF including the recognized text in a new PDF file. This is now slightly larger than the original file.
9. By the way: If a write protection prevents the copy from being saved, you can try to remove the write protection before starting the text recognition according to our practical tips.

Read text from pictures - this is how you proceed

To read text from images, you can simply use the Free Online OCR online tool.

• Open Free Online OCR and insert the image file by clicking on "Select file".
• Then select the language and format you want to convert to.
• The process is started with a click on "Convert". You can then download the finished file.