How to make a PDF searchable and copyable on Windows
You don't need special software to make a PDF searchable and copyable on Windows. FernPDF runs entirely in Edge or Chrome on Windows: open the tool, drop your file, download the result. Text extraction runs on-device. PDFs with an embedded text layer extract exactly; image-only scans need full OCR (roadmap).
No desktop installer, no admin rights, no paid software. It works on locked-down work laptops because it's just a web page. Windows 10 and 11 are both fine.
Step by step
1Open the OCR PDF tool.
2Drop your PDF.
3Choose the output: a searchable PDF or plain text (.txt).
4Click “Run OCR” and download the result.
No upload · no account · no watermark
FAQ
Common questions
Yes, FernPDF is a web app, so it runs in Edge or Chrome on Windows with no installation. All processing happens on your device using WebAssembly.
Yes. Every core FernPDF tool is free, with no account, no watermark, and no trial limits.
For PDFs that contain a text layer, extraction is exact: every word is read directly from the document, entirely on-device.
Image-only scans have no text layer to read. Recognising text inside images needs a full OCR engine. That’s on the roadmap; this tool covers every PDF with embedded text today.