PDF Utility Tools

What kinds of PDF files can OCR make searchable?

OCR works on PDFs that are purely image-based typically scanned documents, photographed pages, or PDFs exported from image editing tools where the text was flattened into the page image. If you open a PDF and cannot select, highlight, or copy any text, it is image-based and OCR will help. Dockitt uses ocrmypdf with the Tesseract engine, which supports a wide range of document types. OCR accuracy is highest on clean, high-resolution scans of printed text.

What causes a PDF to become corrupted and can it always be repaired?

PDF corruption most commonly happens due to interrupted file transfers a download that was cut off mid-way, a file that was being saved when the application crashed, or storage media errors. Dockitt's Repair PDF tool uses Ghostscript to rebuild the internal structure of the file. This works well for mildly damaged files. However, if the file data itself has been physically overwritten or large portions are missing, the content cannot be recovered.

Does cropping a PDF permanently delete the content outside the crop area?

In the PDF format, cropping sets a property called the CropBox, which defines the visible area of each page. Content outside the CropBox is hidden from view but technically remains in the file. This means the file size does not decrease significantly after cropping, and in theory the hidden content could be made visible again by changing the CropBox in a PDF editor.

How do I fix a multi-page scanned document where the pages are in the wrong order?

Use the Reorder PDF Pages tool. After uploading your document, you can drag and drop the pages into the correct sequence. This is particularly useful for scanned documents where pages were fed into the scanner in the wrong order, or for documents assembled from multiple scans that need to be arranged chronologically.

Can I extract non-consecutive pages from a PDF into a new document?

Yes. The Extract PDF Pages tool lets you specify individual page numbers in any order for example, pages 3, 8, 12, and 17. The resulting PDF will contain only those pages, in the order you specified. This is useful when working with reports that have relevant sections scattered throughout.

What should I do if a repaired PDF still shows blank or missing pages?

If specific pages appear blank after repair, it means the data for those pages was too damaged for Ghostscript to reconstruct. In this situation, check whether you have an earlier version of the file saved elsewhere, whether the sender can resend the original, or whether you have a printed copy that could be scanned.