To extract text from a PDF image, you can use Lido's AI PDF Extractor. Lido reads the text inside the image with built-in OCR and places it into a spreadsheet with tables and columns intact, ready to export to Excel.
In this tutorial, we will walk you through how to extract text from a PDF image using Lido. Simply follow the steps below.
Lido is the best way to extract text from a PDF image because it turns the picture of the page into organized, editable data, not just a block of raw text.
Before you start, make sure you have your image-based PDF saved on your computer. This includes scanned pages, phone photos saved as PDFs, and PDFs made from JPEG or PNG files.
If you don't have a Lido account yet, you can create one for free here.
Once you're logged in, create a New File.
Click on Tools in the top menu and select the PDF Table Extractor. This tool reads text from the image and keeps tables and columns in place.
Drag and drop your file into Lido, or click to upload. Lido runs OCR on the image automatically, so you don't need to convert it first.
For the purpose of this tutorial, we are using a sample scanned invoice. Drag the selection box over the part of the image you want to extract, such as the line items table with the item numbers, descriptions, quantities, and prices. If the same layout repeats on every page, check Apply selection to all pages.
Once you have your selection, click Extract Data.
Review the extracted text to make sure it includes everything you need. You can go back to adjust your selection. When you're satisfied, click Insert at Active Cell to add it to your spreadsheet.
You can edit and format the cells however you need. Adjust column widths, format dates and numbers, or reorganize the content to suit your workflow.
Once you're done, you can click Export to Excel at the top to download the text from your PDF image as a spreadsheet file. The same steps work for turning a scanned table into Excel with its rows and columns in place.
To get text out of a PDF image, you need OCR (software that reads letters in an image and turns them into real text). These options can help, but each has limits:
Google Docs (free): Upload the PDF to Google Drive, right-click it, and choose Open with Google Docs. It works for simple, single-page images, but tables and columns come out as unstructured text. When the goal is a spreadsheet, it helps to compare converters that turn PDFs into Excel instead.
Adobe Acrobat Pro: Use Scan & OCR and choose Recognize Text to make the image searchable and copyable. It works well on clean images, but it requires a paid subscription and struggles with photos and complex tables.
Free OCR tools: Tesseract, OnlineOCR.net, and OCR.space read characters from clear images. The output is plain text, so labels, values, and table rows all run together.
Python with Tesseract: Developers can use pytesseract and pdf2image to automate OCR on every page. It takes coding skills and still produces unstructured text.
Lido works in every scenario: scanned pages, phone photos, low-resolution images, multi-page files, and complex tables. It's also SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliant, so sensitive documents stay secure. If you're working with scans specifically, see our guide on how to extract text from a scanned PDF.
Image quality affects how accurately any tool can read the text. Keep these tips in mind:
Use high resolution: Scan at 300 DPI or higher, and use your phone's full camera resolution for photos.
Light the page evenly: Avoid shadows, glare, and dark corners when photographing documents.
Keep the page flat and straight: Curled or tilted pages are harder to read, so lay documents flat and line up the camera above them.
Crop out the background: Remove desks, hands, and other objects around the page before you upload.
Now that you know how to extract text from a PDF image, you can turn scans and photos into editable, organized data without retyping a word.
Upload the PDF to Lido's PDF Table Extractor and select the part of the image you want. Lido reads the text with built-in OCR and places it into a spreadsheet with tables and columns intact, ready to export to Excel.
Your PDF most likely stores the page as an image instead of text. There are no characters to select, so you need OCR to read the text from the image first.
Yes. Google Docs, Tesseract, and OnlineOCR.net can read text from simple PDF images at no cost, but the output is raw text without structure. Lido offers 50 free pages so you can get organized results from your own files.
Lido is the best tool for extracting text from image PDFs because it combines OCR with an understanding of the page layout. Tables, labels, and values come out organized instead of as a wall of text.
Yes. Lido reads phone photos saved as PDFs just like scans. For the clearest results, photograph the page flat, in good lighting, and without shadows.
Open Lido's PDF Table Extractor, upload the PDF, and drag the selection box over the table. Lido reads the image and keeps every row and column in place when you insert and export the table.
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