Convert a scanned PDF into editable Word

No — and there is no switch to turn on. Every PDF is checked for a text layer, and one that has none is read with text recognition automatically before it is converted. You upload the scan and get a Word document back.

Open it and try to select a sentence with your mouse. If nothing highlights, it is a picture of a page and it needs recognition. You do not have to work this out first — we check it for you.

Yes, and it runs whether or not you have an account. Most free converters either charge for it or hand back a Word file with a photograph of your page pasted into it.

Yes. A JPG, PNG or TIFF of a document works the same way — an image never has a text layer, so it always goes through recognition.

The reading order, the paragraphs and most simple tables do. A scan is a photograph, so the result is a reconstruction rather than a copy — a clean, straight scan comes back very close to the original, and a phone photo taken at an angle will not.

On clean printed text, close enough to edit rather than retype. Handwriting, faint fax copies and very small print are where it struggles. Read the result before you rely on it — that is true of every recognition engine, ours included.

Up to 10 MB per file. A PDF longer than 20 pages is converted up to its first 20 pages — 100 on a paying account — and the result tells you so. Recognition is slower than a plain conversion, so a long scan takes a while.

No. There is no watermark on a converted file at any account level.

Yes, in one run. Edit the sentence above to say so — recognition, conversion and translation happen in a single pass and you get one file back.

No. Your first conversion runs without signing up.