Search Text in a PDF
Upload a PDF and type a word or phrase to see every matching page with the result highlighted.
Drag and drop a PDF file here
or
Files are processed in your browser and are not uploaded to our servers.
Files are processed in your browser and are not uploaded to our servers.
How search pdf works
- Choose a PDF file using the uploader above, or drag it in.
- Use the thumbnail rail and contextual panel to set up search text in PDF.
- Review the result in the page preview before exporting.
- Export — PageFlow builds a new file locally and downloads it to your device.
What this tool changes
- Nothing — search only reads the document to build a temporary, local text index.
What it preserves
- The entire original document, unmodified.
Good to know
- Search only works on PDFs with actual selectable text. Scanned documents need OCR first.
- Text extraction order from the PDF can occasionally be imperfect, especially with complex layouts.
Frequently asked questions
- Why does search return no results on my scanned document?
- Scanned pages are images, not text. Use the OCR PDF tool first to recognize text, then search.
- Is my search text sent anywhere?
- No. Extraction and search both run locally in your browser.