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# HOW TO : Perform OCR on PDF files for free
- URL: https://kudithipudi.org/how-to-perform-ocr-on-pdf-files-for-free/
- Published: 2012-03-31T13:12:25.000Z
- Updated: 2012-03-31T13:12:25.000Z
- Description: I had to convert a scanned PDF file into an editable document recently. You can do this using OCR and there is a ton of software...
- Author: admin
- Tags: HOWTO, Technology, Uncategorized, Web, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-23 02:32

I had to convert a scanned PDF file into an editable document recently. You can do this using [OCR](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical%5Fcharacter%5Frecognition?ref=kudithipudi.org) and there is a [ton](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%5Fof%5Foptical%5Fcharacter%5Frecognition%5Fsoftware?ref=kudithipudi.org) of software out there, that does this. There are even [web based services](http://www.free-ocr.com/?ref=kudithipudi.org) that do this. But each of them had limitations (either had to buy the software or limit in the number of pages that can be scanned). I didn’t want to buy the license, since this is not something I would be doing regularly and the document I had to convert was 61 pages, so none of the online services allowed me to do it. I remembered reading that Google Docs, added this (OCR) capability a while ago and since I have a Google Apps account, I decided to give it a try.

Google also has a limit of 2 pages per OCR conversion. So after some brainstorming, I came up with this quick hack to use [Google Docs](http://docs.google.com/?ref=kudithipudi.org) for converting large PDF files into editable content.

1. Split the PDF file into two page documents using [PDFsam](http://www.pdfsam.org/?ref=kudithipudi.org) (Open Source PDF Split and Merge Tool).
2. Log into your Google Docs interface at [http://docs.google.com](http://docs.google.com/?ref=kudithipudi.org) . All you need is a Google Account to use this feature
3. As you upload the files, Google creates an editable document with the text from the PDF files. You can then create a new document and copy/paste the content from all the smaller files.

Upload the PDF files you created in step 1.

![](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7191/7038644647_0a5176e6a9_o_d.png "Google Docs : Upload Files")

Check the settings to convert PDF files to editable

![](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7255/6892548786_b7a3f38335_z_d.jpg "Google Docs : Convert PDF to text")

Create a folder (collection) to organize your files. This is not required, but it will make searching for the files a lot easier

![](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7080/7038644631_3201ef721f_d.jpg "Google Docs : Creation New Collection")

I think someone with more programming chops than me can improve this by using the [Google API](https://developers.google.com/google-apps/documents-list/?ref=kudithipudi.org) to do the copy/paste from the smaller docs into the final document :).