Quilt - Screenshot to PDF app for MacQuilt screenshot to PDF app for macOS logo

Free pdf tool

Screenshot to Searchable PDF

Run OCR on your screenshots and get a PDF with an invisible text layer, so you can search, select and copy the text. Recognition happens on your device.

  • Runs on your device
  • No sign-up
  • No watermark

Drop screenshots to OCR

PNG, JPEG, WebP, HEIC and more·Browse files·

Opened in this tab only. Nothing is uploaded.

How to use Screenshot to Searchable PDF

  1. 01

    Add screenshots

    Drop in one or more images, or paste a screenshot. Each image becomes one page.

  2. 02

    Pick the language

    Choose the language of the text so the recognizer uses the right dictionary.

  3. 03

    Run OCR

    The OCR engine loads once, then reads every page on your device. Progress is shown page by page.

  4. 04

    Download or copy

    Save the searchable PDF, or copy the recognized text straight to your clipboard.

What it does well

Invisible text layer
Recognized words sit exactly over the image, so search highlights and selections line up.
Copy the text
Grab plain text from every page without opening the PDF.
Private OCR
Recognition runs in a Web Worker in your browser. Your images never leave your device.
Multi-page
Process a whole stack of screenshots into one document.

What makes a PDF searchable?

A PDF made from screenshots is just a stack of pictures: your computer sees pixels, not words. A searchable PDF adds a second, invisible layer of real text positioned exactly where each word appears in the image.

Optical character recognition (OCR) produces that layer. It finds lines of text in the image, recognizes each word, and records its position. The words are then written into the PDF in invisible ink, so the page looks identical but Spotlight, Preview and your PDF reader can search it.

OCR accuracy depends on the source. Sharp, high-resolution screenshots of clean text give the best results. Tiny text, unusual fonts and busy backgrounds are harder to read.

Quilt for Mac

Searchable PDFs, automatically

Quilt runs OCR with Apple’s Vision framework, fully offline and in many more languages. Capture an ebook or slide deck and every exported PDF is searchable the moment it is saved.

Download for macOSSee what Quilt can do

Free to start · macOS 14 or later · Intel and Apple silicon

Quilt capturing an ebook page by page with automatic key presses

Questions, answered

Something else on your mind? Email [email protected].

Yes. There is no sign-up, no watermark and no daily limit. The tool is free because it runs on your own device, which costs us nothing to host.

No. The OCR engine and language data are downloaded to your browser the first time you run it, then recognition happens locally. Your images are never sent anywhere.

English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Dutch. The PDF text layer uses a standard Latin font, so other scripts are not supported in this browser tool.

The first run downloads the OCR engine and language model (a few megabytes). Your browser caches them, so later runs start much faster.

Clean screenshots of standard text usually come out very accurately. Accuracy drops for small text, handwriting, stylized fonts or low-contrast images.

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