OCR Repair Utility
Clean OCR Text Online
Remove broken characters, spacing issues and formatting artifacts from scanned documents and OCR exports directly in your browser.
Workspace
Paste OCR output, repair it, copy clean text
Core cleanup
Repair scanned-text extraction artifacts
Remove OCR artifacts
Strip invisible characters, soft hyphens and scan noise.
Normalize broken spacing
Fix duplicate spaces, spaced punctuation and odd gaps.
Repair malformed punctuation
Clean broken periods, commas, colons and question marks.
Fix corrupted characters
Reduce common OCR substitutions and Unicode inconsistencies.
Merge fragmented lines
Rebuild paragraphs from short OCR line fragments.
Clean extraction noise
Prepare OCR output for editors, search, notes and archives.
Quick cleanup modes
Target the OCR problem you see
Before and after
Realistic OCR cleanup examples
Scanned PDF report
Before
The annual report was
exported from a low-
resolution scan . Several
sentences were split across
the page width.After
The annual report was exported from a low-resolution scan. Several sentences were split across the page width.Academic scan
Before
In the experirnent , the rnodel
recognized 91 . 4 % of the
archival pages . The rnean
error rate was lower.After
In the experiment, the model recognized 91.4% of the archival pages. The mean error rate was lower.Invoice OCR export
Before
Invoice No . 2087
Desc r i p t i o n : Design services
Subtotal : $ 1,250.00
Tax : $ 100.00
Total :: $ 1,350.00After
Invoice No. 2087
Description: Design services
Subtotal: $ 1,250.00
Tax: $ 100.00
Total: $ 1,350.00Book excerpt
Before
" The city was quiet , " she
said . "No one remembered
the old station — except the
people who had left."After
"The city was quiet," she said. "No one remembered the old station - except the people who had left."Contract clause
Before
The Supplier shall maintain
confidential inforrnation for
a period of five ( 5 ) years .
Notice rnay be sent by e - mail.After
The Supplier shall maintain confidential information for a period of five (5) years.
Notice may be sent by e-mail.Low-quality OCR export
Before
Archivai record 1934
Owner : Joao da S ilva
Status : approved ??
Notes : page contains water rnarks.After
Archival record 1934
Owner: Joao da Silva
Status: approved?
Notes: page contains water marks.Background
Why OCR text becomes corrupted
OCR extraction depends on the quality of the scanned page. Low resolution, skewed pages, shadows, old paper, tight columns and unusual fonts can make recognition engines split words, confuse letters and preserve visual line endings instead of paragraphs.
PDF conversion can add another layer of artifacts: invisible Unicode characters, soft hyphens, malformed punctuation, odd quotation marks and spacing copied from the document layout rather than the original text flow.
Method
How OCR cleanup works
The cleanup pipeline normalizes line endings, removes invisible characters, repairs spacing around punctuation, standardizes quote marks and merges short wrapped lines into readable paragraphs.
Processing is fully client-side. The text stays in your browser, with no server processing, no upload step and no API dependency.
Workflows
Best workflows for OCR cleanup
Use this tool after extracting text from scanned books, invoices, contracts, academic papers, archival documents or exported PDFs. Clean the OCR output first, then review important names, numbers and legal wording manually before publishing or archiving.
For adjacent document cleanup, continue with the OCR Cleanup Tool, Remove PDF Line Breaks, Fix Broken PDF Text, Remove weird Unicode characters, Fix copy-paste formatting, Text Normalizer or the broader AI Cleanup Tool.
Related tools
Continue the document cleanup workflow
Need broader OCR cleanup?
Use OCR Cleanup when scanned PDF text also needs document-level formatting repair.
FAQ
OCR artifact cleanup questions
How do I clean OCR text?
Paste OCR output, choose the cleanup options and click Clean OCR Text to repair spacing, line wrapping and artifacts.
Why does OCR create weird characters?
OCR guesses characters from scanned pixels, so poor scans, old fonts and PDF conversion can create symbols, split words or Unicode noise.
Can I fix scanned PDF text?
Yes. Paste extracted scanned PDF text to fix broken lines, duplicate spaces, punctuation issues and paragraph fragments.
Does this tool upload files?
No. The cleanup runs locally in your browser with no server processing and no API dependency.
How do I remove OCR artifacts?
Use the artifact, spacing, punctuation, Unicode and paragraph cleanup modes to remove common OCR extraction problems.