Free PDF OCR & Convert — 100% in Your Browser, Nothing Uploaded
Scan, save & share documents straight from your mobile browser — no app install needed. OCR scanned PDFs, convert PDF to Word, Excel, JPG or PNG, and merge, split or compress — all free and offline in your browser. Your files stay on your device.
Drop a PDF here, or choose a file — or tap 📷 to scan with your camera
A complete PDF toolkit that runs in your browser
Pennary is a free set of tools for the everyday document jobs — scanning, reading text from scans, converting, compressing, and reorganising pages. The difference from most "free PDF" websites is simple but important: your files are never uploaded. Every operation runs locally, in your own browser, so a bank statement, a signed contract, a certificate or an identity document never leaves your device. There is no sign-up, no account, and no watermark.
How it works
What you can do with Pennary
- Scan with your phone — capture a page with automatic edge detection and clean-up. How to scan a clean page →
- Read text with OCR — turn a scanned page or photo into editable, searchable text, recognised on your device. How OCR works →
- Convert PDFs — to Word, Excel, JPG or PNG. What survives a conversion →
- Compress a large PDF — shrink a heavy scan down to email size. Compress for email →
- Merge, split & reorder — combine files, pull out pages, fix page order and orientation. Organise pages →
- Annotate — highlight, draw, and add text notes, then download the marked-up file.
New to any of this? Our plain-English guides walk through each task from start to finish, including what is actually inside a PDF and why an in-browser tool is safer than an upload site.
Why your files stay private
Most online PDF tools upload your document to a server, process it there, and send a result back — which means trusting a stranger's computer and a deletion promise you cannot verify. Pennary works the opposite way. The tools run as code inside the web page, on your own processor, so there is no upload step to secure and no copy of your file left behind. You can even disconnect from the internet after the page loads and keep working — the clearest possible proof that your document is staying with you.
Frequently asked questions
Is Pennary really free?
Yes. Viewing, merging, splitting, rotating, compressing, annotating, scanning, reading a page with OCR, and converting to Word, Excel, JPG or PNG are all free — with no account and no watermark. Ads on the free version help support it, and an optional Pro removes them.
Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. Every operation happens in your browser, on your device. Your documents are never uploaded, stored, or seen by us — the tool has no server to send them to and cannot read their contents in the first place.
Do I need to install anything or create an account?
No. Pennary runs in any modern browser on a phone or computer. There is nothing to download for the web version and no sign-up required.
Can I scan documents without an app?
Yes. On a phone, tap the camera button to capture a page directly in the browser, with automatic edge detection, cropping and clean-up. No app install is needed. See the phone scanning guide.
Why can't I select or search the text in my PDF?
It is almost certainly a scanned PDF — a photograph of a page, which contains pixels rather than real text. Running OCR adds a searchable text layer. Our guide on making a scanned PDF searchable explains it fully.
Will a PDF-to-Word conversion look exactly like the original?
Pennary places each line of text at its real position on the page and keeps the fonts, sizes and bold/italic, so the Word file closely matches the original layout; Excel rebuilds tables into real columns and cells. On a born-digital PDF the words are exact. A scanned PDF is read with OCR first, so the layout matches but the recognised text may need a quick proofread. Here is what really survives.
How do I make a large scanned PDF small enough to email?
Scanned pages are large because each is a full image. Compressing the PDF, or scanning plain text in Grey rather than Colour, cuts the size dramatically. See compressing a PDF for email.
Which browsers and devices are supported?
Any current version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari, on Windows, macOS, Android or iOS. Camera scanning needs a secure (https) connection, which pennary.com provides.
What languages does OCR support?
Text recognition currently runs in English, entirely on your device.
How do I get help or send feedback?
Visit our contact page or email support@pennary.com. Please do not email the sensitive document itself — we cannot see your files and do not need them to help.