A PDF text layer is the invisible, selectable text behind the visible page image. When you open a normal PDF and can highlight or copy words, that's the text layer working. Scanned files have none because they are just photos of pages—every pixel is an image, so your computer sees no letters, only shapes.
GekiPDF's OCR tool uses Tesseract to add a searchable text layer to scanned PDFs. Upload a file up to 50 MB, choose English or Chinese (simplified/traditional) among other languages, and get results in minutes. For best accuracy, use scans at 200-300 DPI; lower resolution makes recognition harder.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my scanned PDF not allow text selection?
Because it has no text layer—only images. OCR creates that layer by recognizing characters from the pixels and embedding them as selectable text.
What DPI should I scan at for OCR?
Use 200-300 DPI. Below 200 DPI, small characters blur; above 300 DPI, file size grows without improving accuracy much.
How long do my files stay on GekiPDF?
Files are deleted after one hour. You can process up to 40 conversions per hour per IP, with no signup and no watermark.
Do it in the full tool
Open OCR PDF for all options, or jump straight to another step below.
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