PDF to Searchable PDF API

Create a searchable/editable PDF by adding OCR text to the source PDF.

Feature

Request Mode

Item	Value
Authentication	x-api-key: your_api_key_here
Request URL	POST http://localhost:8080/api/v1/process/pdf/pdf
Content type	multipart/form-data
Success response	PDF file stream

Request Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description	Required
file	File	Source file. Recommended extension: .pdf.	Yes
options	String	JSON string containing the feature options below.	No
password	String	Source file open password, used for password-protected PDFs.	No

Options Parameters

Put the following fields in the options JSON string.

Parameter	Type	Purpose
isContainImg	Integer or String	Whether to include images in the output. 0 = no, 1 = yes.
formulaToImage	Integer or String	Whether to render formulas as images. 0 keeps formulas as editable content where possible; 1 renders formulas as images.
enableOcr	Integer or String	Whether to use OCR. 0 = disabled, 1 = enabled.
ocrRecognitionLang	String	OCR language code. Supported values: AUTO, CHINESE, CHINESE_TRAD, ENGLISH, KOREAN, JAPANESE, LATIN, DEVANAGARI, CYRILLIC, ARABIC, TAMIL, TELUGU, KANNADA, THAI, GREEK, ESLAV. Default: AUTO.
ocrOption	String	INVALID_CHARACTER, SCAN_PAGE, INVALID_CHARACTERAND_SCAN_PAGE, or ALL. Default: ALL.
transparentText	Integer or String	Searchable/editable PDF option. Whether OCR text is transparent over the original page image.
pageRanges	String	Page ranges to process, starting from page 1. Examples: 1, 1-3, 1,3-5. Empty means all pages.
isOutputDocumentPerPage	Integer or String	Whether to output each page as a separate document. 0 = no, 1 = yes.
containPageBackgroundImage	Integer or String	Whether to include page background images. Mainly used with OCR-enabled conversion.
outputFileName	String	Optional output filename. When present, it is used as the preferred download filename.

Request Example

curl -X POST "http://localhost:8080/api/v1/process/pdf/pdf" \
  -H "x-api-key: your_api_key_here" \
  -F "[email protected]" \
  -F 'options={"isContainImg":1,"formulaToImage":0,"enableOcr":0,"ocrRecognitionLang":"AUTO","ocrOption":"ALL","transparentText":1,"pageRanges":"","isOutputDocumentPerPage":0}'

Response

On success, the API returns the converted file stream with Content-Type and Content-Disposition headers. On failure, the ComPDF Self-hosted returns a normalized error JSON response.