# Has anyone figured out how to make searchable pdf?

**URL:** <https://www.insumo.io/t/has-anyone-figured-out-how-to-make-searchable-pdf/145>\
**Category:** Forms & Data Capture\
**Created:** [November 7, 2026, 10:25am UTC](https://www.insumo.io/t/has-anyone-figured-out-how-to-make-searchable-pdf/145 "2026-11-07T10:25:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![NiamhWalsh](https://www.insumo.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/54ee81/32.png) [@NiamhWalsh](https://www.insumo.io/u/NiamhWalsh)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2026, 10:25am UTC](https://www.insumo.io/t/has-anyone-figured-out-how-to-make-searchable-pdf/145/1 "2026-11-07T10:25:11Z")

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I scanned a stack of old paperwork into PDFs but ctrl+F finds nothing in them, it’s like the text isn’t really there. Is there any way to make these files searchable without re-scanning all 60 pages?

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**Author:** ![clumsy\_goblin](https://www.insumo.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/5fc32e/32.png) [@clumsy\_goblin](https://www.insumo.io/u/clumsy_goblin)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2026, 10:25am UTC](https://www.insumo.io/t/has-anyone-figured-out-how-to-make-searchable-pdf/145/2 "2026-11-07T10:25:20Z")

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To be fair, your scanner just saved them as flat images. You just need to run an OCR tool on them to recognize the text. Drop the file into Adobe or something like PDF24, you defintely don’t have to rescan.