SuperTextHub

Scanned PDF vs Text PDF: Which Extraction Mode Should You Use?

The same document as a text PDF and a scanned PDF: download both sample files, see what each extraction mode actually returns, and know when you need OCR.

A text PDF already contains selectable characters. A scanned PDF is a stack of page images with no text inside. That one difference decides whether direct extraction is enough or whether you need OCR — and you can test it in ten seconds with the two sample files below.

Tell them apart in ten seconds

Open the PDF in any viewer and try to highlight a sentence with your mouse. If you can select real characters, it is a text PDF. If the pointer grabs nothing — or selecting “text” selects the whole page as one block — it is a scan.

Try it with the same document in both forms. These two files contain identical content; the second one was produced by this site's own Make PDF Look Scanned tool on 2026-10-09:

What each file actually returns

We ran both files through PDF to Text in the browser and kept the real output. Here is page 1 of each.

Text PDF — direct extraction. The text layer is read directly, and each line in the document comes out as its own line:

SuperTextHub Demo Document
SuperTextHub public demo test
Project: Browser OCR audit
Task: Extract this text accurately.
Order ID: DEMO-1042
Total: USD 128.50

Scanned PDF — OCR fallback. There is no text layer, so each page is rendered and recognized. The words come back accurately, but as a continuous stream, because the OCR engine reads text regions one by one:

SuperTextHub Demo Document SuperTextHub public demo test
Project: Browser OCR audit Task: Extract this text accurately.
Order ID: DEMO-1042 Total: USD 128.50

Neither output is wrong — they reflect what each file actually contains. Direct extraction keeps the original line structure; OCR recovers the words but leaves the re-flowing to you.

Why Auto mode usually wins

Many real files are mixed: page 1 is exported text, page 2 is a pasted scan. Auto mode checks each page — direct extraction first, OCR only where the page has no usable text — so you do not have to guess. You can always force Text only or OCR all pages when you already know what the file is.

After extraction: fix the lines

If headings and fields came out mashed together, send the result to the cleaner. Keep structure is the safe default; Fix PDF line breaks joins soft-wrapped paragraphs back together while leaving field lines like Order ID: DEMO-1042 untouched.

Simple rule

Selectable text → text extraction. Pure images → OCR. Not sure → Auto, page by page. Start on the PDF to Text page with your own file.

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