Glossary
What is OCR?
MarkdownWhat OCR is
A scan is only a picture of a page. OCR finds the letters in that picture and produces text. Many tools then place the text as an invisible layer behind the page so it looks unchanged.
Why it matters on a Mac
macOS has Live Text, which lets you select text in photos and screenshots in Preview and Photos. For whole scanned PDFs and batches, you need a tool that processes every page.
How to check it on macOS
Open the PDF in Preview and try to select a word. If you can only drag a box, the page is an image with no text layer.
How Toolbox handles it
Make PDF Searchable adds an invisible text layer to scanned PDFs. Extract Text saves recognized text as a .txt file. Scan Document can add the layer while you scan. Recognition uses Apple's Vision framework on your Mac, so files are not uploaded.
Frequently asked questions
Does OCR change how my PDF looks?
No. The text sits invisibly behind the page image.
Is OCR always accurate?
No. Blurry scans, handwriting and unusual fonts can produce mistakes, so check important text.
Does OCR need the internet?
Not in Toolbox. Recognition runs on your Mac.
Tools mentioned
- Make PDF SearchableAdd an invisible text layer to scanned PDFs so you can search, select and copy their text.
- Extract TextRecognize text in images, screenshots and scanned PDFs.
- Scan DocumentScan paper with your iPhone or from photos. Pages are found, straightened and cleaned up into one PDF.
- Capture TextSelect any area of the screen and copy the text in it.
