How do I make a scanned PDF searchable using Adobe Acrobat?

Open your scanned PDF in Acrobat. Go to 'All tools' > 'Scan & OCR' > 'In this file'. Set the page range and language. Click 'Recognize Text'. This adds a searchable layer, letting you find words in the document.

Generate Searchable Text in Adobe Acrobat — How-to & AI prompts

AI prompts

2 ways to ask · copy any one

AExecute — “help me do it”Run OCR on the stack of 19th‑century typed letters to extract transcriptions, export the…+

Run OCR on the stack of 19th‑century typed letters to extract transcriptions, export the results to editable text files, and confirm names and dates are correctly recognized before I import into my database.

when the reply comes backPush once: ask it to sharpen the weakest part, and to say what it assumed.

BImprove — “do it better”Improve the transcriptions for searchability — prioritize readable sections for high‑accuracy…+

Improve the transcriptions for searchability — prioritize readable sections for high‑accuracy OCR, export both searchable PDFs and parallel plain‑text transcripts, mark uncertain words for manual review, and produce a short report on name/date confidence so I know what to verify first.

when the reply comes backPush once: ask it to sharpen the weakest part, and to say what it assumed.

How to do it

the tool · the steps · what to avoid

1
Open the scanned PDF file in Adobe Acrobat.
2
Go to the Tools menu.
3
Select Scan & OCR from the tools list.
4
Click Recognize Text and choose In This File.
5
In the settings panel, ensure PDF Output Style is set to Searchable Image.
6
Click Recognize to start the OCR process.
7
Save the PDF after OCR is complete.
Best practiceFor best OCR accuracy, scan your documents at 300 dpi and ensure the images are clear before running OCR.

In the appWith the API

After OCR completes, you can search, copy, and highlight text in your previously scanned PDF.

This runs in the Acrobat app - there is no separate API for this task.

Glossary

words on this page

OCROCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. It is technology that turns images of text into real text you can search and copy.ExampleAfter scanning a paper invoice, OCR allows you to copy the vendor's name from the image.

Searchable TextSearchable text means you can use a search bar to find words inside a document.ExampleWith searchable text, you can quickly find all occurrences of a keyword in the report.

DPIDPI means dots per inch, and it tells you how clear an image is when it is scanned.ExampleA scanned photo saved at 300 DPI will usually contain more detail than the same photo at 72 DPI.

Who does this

3 roles

ArchivistResearch LibrarianRecords Manager

FAQ

about this task

Open your scanned PDF in Acrobat.
Go to 'All tools' > 'Scan & OCR' > 'In this file'.
Set the page range and language.
Click 'Recognize Text'. This adds a searchable layer, letting you find words in the document.

OCR, or Optical Character Recognition, is a technology that converts images of text into actual text data. It's important for scanned documents because scans are usually just pictures. Without OCR, you cannot select, copy, or search for text within the document. OCR makes these scanned images useful by turning them into searchable and editable files.

The 'page contains renderable text' error means the page is not a simple image. OCR is designed to convert images of text into searchable text. If a page already has real text, Acrobat thinks it doesn't need to perform OCR. This feature only works for pages that are purely image-based, like photos of documents, not PDFs that already have selectable text.

Choosing the correct language for OCR is very important because different languages have unique letter shapes, accents, and character sets. If you select the wrong language, the OCR engine might misinterpret characters, leading to many errors in the recognized text. For example, 'ñ' in Spanish could be read as 'n' or 'm' if the language is set to English, making the text inaccurate and hard to search.

The best scan resolution for OCR is 300 DPI (dots per inch). This matters because higher DPI means more detail in the scanned image. More detail helps the OCR software accurately identify individual letters and words. Scanning at a low resolution, like 72 DPI, can make the text blurry or pixelated, which leads to many errors and poor text recognition results.

Generate Searchable Text

When to use it

AI prompts

How to do it

Glossary

The real tasks

Who does this

FAQ

Sources

Adobe help

When it fails