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"What is a free and effective way to convert a regular PDF into a searchable PDF?"

**Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology**: OCR is the science behind making PDFs searchable, it involves recognizing and converting scanned or non-editable text into editable text.

**Free online tools**: There are many free online tools available that can convert PDFs to searchable PDFs using OCR technology, such as Smallpdf, PDF24 Tools, iLovePDF, and OCR2Edit.

**Limitations of free online tools**: While these online tools are free, some of them have limitations on the number of conversions or file size, and may add watermarks to the converted files.

**Adobe Acrobat Pro DC**: This software has OCR capabilities and can convert non-searchable PDFs to searchable ones, offering a free trial period for users.

**Microsoft Word conversion**: Microsoft Word can also be used to convert a PDF to a searchable PDF by opening the PDF in Word and then saving it as a PDF, but this method may not always preserve the original formatting of the PDF.

**PDF Editor software**: PDFFiller is a free-to-use PDF editor that can convert PDFs to searchable PDFs using OCR technology.

**OCR Online tools**: Websites like Sejda and Nanonets offer OCR online tools that can convert scanned PDF images to searchable PDFs.

**PDF to Text tool**: Nanonets also offers a PDF to Text tool that can convert scanned PDF images to plain text files.

**Searchable PDF output**: When you convert a PDF to a searchable PDF, the output is a PDF document where the invisible text is overlayed on the original images at the correct locations.

**Cross-platform compatibility**: Some PDF editors, like Xodo, are cross-platform and have iOS and Android apps, making it convenient to convert PDFs to searchable PDFs on the go.

**File size reduction**: Some online tools, like Smallpdf, can also reduce document file sizes while converting PDFs to searchable PDFs.

**Conversion of 300 file types**: Some online tools, like SodaPDF, can convert 300 file types to PDF in seconds, and also make PDF documents searchable.

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