Tested guides · Original examples
Visible PDF text will not copy? Inspect text layers and scanned pages
One PDF can contain both text and scanned pages. Inspect the mixed two-page example page by page before applying OCR to the entire file.
Maintained by:Finl Tools · Updated: · Example dates and methods appear below
Open PDF file inspectionDownload the mixed two-page example
The first page contains searchable text; the second is a scanned image containing text. Both display at 210 × 297 millimeters. They both look textual but have different internal structures.
Upload the mixed example for inspection to see each page’s dimensions, paper size, rotation, extractable character count and image-object count. Processing uploads the file to the server; use the public example to learn the workflow first.
Check the expected results
Page 1 should report “Contains a text layer”, with 940 non-whitespace characters and 0 image objects. Page 2 should report “Image page; possibly a scan”, with 0 characters and 1 image object. Total page count is 2.
“Possibly a scan” is a structural judgment based on image and text objects. Photos and posters can receive the same label. It does not establish the file’s purpose or authenticity.
A text layer does not guarantee correct copying
Some scanned PDFs contain both images and hidden OCR text. Inspection reports a text layer, but recognition can have errors, incorrect reading order or omissions. Copy a passage and check numbers and column order.
Letters drawn as vector outlines may look like text but have no extractable characters. A page with no text and no images is not necessarily blank; it may contain vector graphics.
Choose the next step from the results
Consider OCR when a page contains only images and you need copyable text. This site’s PDF editing and OCR workflow uses a third-party recognition service. Read its privacy information before uploading and proofread the result.
To change page order or orientation, use page organization directly without OCR. PDFs requiring a password to open are reported as locked; open and save them locally only with authorized access. Inspection does not replace signature verification or security scanning.
Download the input and actual outputs
All files are synthetic examples created by this site without real business information. Download them to repeat the operations.
Example tested on 2026-09-26. PDFs used the site API (pypdf 6.19.0 / PyMuPDF 1.28.2); images used Canvas encoding in Chromium 153. Other browsers or versions may produce different file sizes.
| File | Actual bytes | Download |
|---|---|---|
| Mixed two-page PDF | 714813 B | Download file |
| Separate text page | 5390 B | Download file |
| Separate scanned page | 709772 B | Download file |