Can anyone recommend a reliable and free method to convert a document to a searchable PDF from various file formats, such as Word or Text files?

OCR technology, used in converting documents to searchable PDFs, identifies and converts text within images or scanned pages.

Adobe Acrobat offers a built-in conversion tool for making PDFs searchable, utilizing its OCR capabilities.

Online OCR tools, like PDF2Go and Smallpdf, provide free and user-friendly methods for converting various file formats into searchable PDFs.

Xodo, a PDF editor, offers an OCR tool, allowing users to create searchable PDFs from scanned documents.

The conversion process involves selecting the desired pages, running the OCR process, and downloading the new searchable PDF file.

PDF2Go and Smallpdf support multiple languages during the OCR process, providing more accurate text recognition.

When converting a non-searchable PDF to a searchable one, the resulting file size might increase, as it now includes text information.

The OCR process involves text detection, character segmentation, and character recognition, making unsearchable documents searchable.

Online OCR tools may have limitations on the number of pages or file size that can be processed for free.

The accuracy of the OCR process depends on the quality of the original document, particularly with scanned documents.

Some OCR tools provide additional features, such as text correction or text editing, once the OCR process is completed.

OCR technology is continually improving, resulting in higher text recognition accuracy and faster processing times.