Turn screenshots and scans into searchable text
Hundreds of images, screenshots and scanned contracts converted into copyable, searchable text that you can find again by keyword.
What you end up with
- Text you can copy instead of retyping
- Tables and paragraphs with layout preserved
- An archive searchable by keyword
The sequence
1. Identify what kind of document you have
Plain scans and complex layouts (multi-column papers, tabular reports) need different tools. The wrong one still returns text, just in the wrong order — and redoing it costs more than choosing correctly up front.
PaddleOCROpen source★ 91.5KUse AI to recognize text in images and PDFs, turning documents into editable, searchable structured data, supporting over 100 languages.Umi-OCROpen source★ 48.1KA free offline OCR text recognition tool. Extract text from screenshots or imported images, with support for PDF recognition and QR codes.2. For complex layouts, parse the document rather than OCR it
Documents with tables, columns or formulas should go through a layout parser that emits Markdown or JSON, preserving structure. This decides whether downstream text is usable at all.
MinerUOpen source★ 82.2KAccurately convert PDF and Office documents to Markdown and JSON, suitable for direct use with AI models.doclingOpen source★ 69.3Kdocling is a document parsing tool that converts PDF, Word, and other documents into AI-friendly Markdown or JSON formats, making it easy to feed to large models.Stirling-PDFOpen source★ 94.7KA feature-packed PDF toolbox that can edit, convert, sign, OCR, free and open-source, self-hostable.3. Archive it so it's findable later
Converting without archiving means you still can't find it in three months. Store the extracted text alongside the original image with full-text search.
paperless-ngxOpen source★ 47.0KAn open-source system that scans, archives, and searches paper documents, keeping document management organized.karakeepOpen source★ 29.9KA self-hostable bookmarking tool that saves links, notes, and images, with AI auto-categorization and super convenient full-text search.
Only need one piece of this?
You don't have to build the whole chain. Every tool above is listed on its own, with a summary, pros and cons, and a starting point.
Read a full report first
A playbook gives you the order. A report gives you the route comparison, real costs, a day-by-day plan and the pitfalls — so you can decide which route fits.