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FastOCR

FastOCR vs Adobe Acrobat OCR: supported languages and which plan has OCR

Short answer

Adobe Acrobat OCR supported languages are a fixed list, not English only: Adobe's Export PDF help names 13, including Japanese and Traditional Chinese, and does not name Arabic, Urdu, Persian or Hindi. On the desktop, OCR is listed for Acrobat Pro and Studio, not Standard. FastOCR detects 100+ languages automatically and reads images with no sign-up.

By the FastOCR team · Updated 4 November 2026 · Accuracy test run 31 October 2026

We make FastOCR. Accuracy figures come from our own test of each tool we scored, ours included, on the same scans; other facts link to each tool's own pages. How we tested

Try it here

Drop your file here

PDF, PNG, JPG, WebP, BMP, HEIC

PDF up to 1 GB · images up to 20 MB

Tips for a clear photo
  • Lay the page flat.
  • Use even light, with no shadows.
  • Turn off the flash to avoid glare.
  • Fill the frame with the page.

Verdict

Pick FastOCR if

  • Your pages are in a script that Adobe's language list does not name, such as Arabic, Urdu or Persian.
  • You would rather not pick a language for every file: FastOCR detects it, including on pages that mix two scripts.
  • This is a one-off job and you do not want to buy a plan or start a trial first.
  • You want Word or Markdown as well as a searchable PDF.

Pick another tool if

  • Your language is on Adobe's list and you already pay for Acrobat Pro or Studio.
  • You need to edit or sign the PDF after the text is recognised.

Comparison table

FastOCR (our tool)Our toolLanguages it names100+ languages, detected automatically, including mixed pages.Language settingNone needed.Files it takesImages with no sign-up; PDFs with a free account.Plan that has OCROCR is part of every plan, including the free one. See pricing.
Adobe AcrobatLanguages it namesThe Export PDF help list names 13, including Japanese and Traditional Chinese. The list leaves out Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Hebrew, Hindi, Bengali and Tamil.SourceLanguage settingYou choose it in the Recognize Text dialog.SourceFiles it takesScanned PDFs, in one file or several.SourcePlan that has OCRListed for Pro and Studio; not listed for Standard.Source
Adobe Acrobat onlineLanguages it namesEnglish, German, Spanish, French and Portuguese "and more", with a link to a fuller list.SourceLanguage settingNot statedSourceFiles it takesPDFs; sign in to download the result. Images need the Pro trial.SourcePlan that has OCRA free tool, with a seven-day Pro trial for image files.Source

Why FastOCR

  • Languages

    100+ languages, detected automatically, including mixed pages.

    Share of characters wrong on our evidence scans (lower is better): Arabic 2.6%, Urdu 9.1%, Bengali 7.4%, Tamil 2.2%, Chinese 1.0%.

    See Languages

  • Photos and screenshots

    Every image upload gets raw text and a single-page searchable PDF, plus Word and Markdown.

    See Photos and screenshots

  • Scanned PDFs

    Scanned PDF in, searchable PDF out; text copies in the right order, including right-to-left.

    See Scanned PDFs

  • Free use

    Images: free, no sign-up, no watermark. PDFs: free account.

    See Free use

Proof

Adobe Acrobat was not run on our scans, so this page makes no accuracy comparison with it. FastOCR's own scores on the same test pages are listed under "Why FastOCR" (lower is better).

Try it on your own page

How FastOCR works

Searchable PDF that copies in reading order

احسان اُس خدا کا کہ جس نے دریائے سخن کو اپنے ابر کرم سے گو ہر معنی بخشا اور زبان کو واسطے اپنی

Select and paste: Urdu, Arabic and Hebrew come out right to left, and two-column pages come out column by column.

Word file with paragraphs and tables

ItemQtyTotal
Paper418.00
Toner164.50

Prose reflows into editable paragraphs; ruled tables come back as real Word tables. PDF to Word

Bank statement to Excel, CSV or QuickBooks

DateDescriptionAmountBalance
09/01Rent payment-1,450.00968.65
09/02Payroll deposit2,386.403,355.05
09/04Grocery store-84.173,270.88

One row per transaction, for US and UK statements in English (example rows invented). Bank statement converter

More from one upload

What FastOCR gives back besides plain text. The copied line is FastOCR's reading of the Urdu test page (Tota Kahani); the table and statement rows are illustrations.

Does Adobe Acrobat OCR support your language?

Probably, if it is a Western European language or Japanese. Adobe's OCR language page for Acrobat Export PDF names English (US and UK), Danish, Dutch, Spanish, French, Japanese, Russian, Italian, Traditional Chinese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Finnish and Swedish. Adobe also says to choose the language first when a document is in Japanese, Chinese or Korean.

The list does not name Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Hebrew, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil or Thai. Older advice, including an earlier version of this post, said Adobe OCR is English only. That was wrong: the list above is longer. What the list does not do is promise anything for a script it leaves out, and we have not tested those scripts in Acrobat.

The free online tool is a separate case. Its page names English, German, Spanish, French and Portuguese "and more", and links the fuller list. Checked 4 November 2026.

How to set the OCR language in Acrobat

Adobe describes the steps on its Recognize Text page: 1. Open the scanned PDF and choose All tools, then Scan & OCR. 2. Select In this file (or In multiple files for a batch). 3. Choose the page range and the language for text recognition. 4. Select Recognize Text. Acrobat adds a searchable text layer to the PDF.

If the language you pick does not match the page, expect poor text, so set it for every file. For a mixed-language page, run the pass with the main language and read the result against the scan.

Which Acrobat plan includes OCR?

Pro and Studio, going by Adobe's pricing page. It lists "Turn scans into editable PDFs" for both and leaves it off Acrobat Standard.

Individual prices on that page, checked 4 November 2026:

  • Acrobat Standard: no OCR listed; US$14.99 a month on an annual plan billed monthly, US$24.99 month to month.
  • Acrobat Pro: OCR listed; US$19.99 a month on an annual plan billed monthly, US$29.99 month to month.
  • Acrobat Studio: OCR listed; US$24.99 a month on an annual plan billed monthly, US$34.99 month to month.

The pricing page shows a free-trial button for Pro and Studio without giving the length. Adobe's free online tool covers PDFs without a plan, though you sign in to download the result. Teams and student plans have their own prices there.

Arabic, Urdu and other scripts without a language setting

FastOCR reads the language of each page itself, so there is no list to check and nothing to pick. It covers 100+ languages, and a page that mixes Urdu and English needs no extra step. That is the practical difference for scripts Adobe does not list: you can drop the file in and judge the result.

On our public-domain test scans FastOCR got 2.6% of Arabic characters wrong, 9.1% of Urdu and 2.2% of Tamil; lower is better. Each number is one book page, so treat it as a sample, and check a page of your own. These scores say nothing about Acrobat, which we did not run.

In FastOCR's searchable PDFs, right-to-left text copies out in the right order. Every image upload also gets a one-page searchable PDF, plus text, Word and Markdown. Image OCR needs no account, and PDFs need a free one.

Use both: recognise in FastOCR, edit in Acrobat

The two tools do different jobs, so a mixed workflow is easy. Run the scan through FastOCR to get the text and a searchable PDF, then open that PDF in Acrobat if you need to edit pages, sign or fill a form. If your language is on Adobe's list and you already pay for Pro, skip the first step and run OCR in Acrobat.

To keep a file on your own computer, the free Mac and Windows apps recognise text offline. They use Apple Vision and Windows OCR, so the scores above describe the website only.

For the wider comparison, including the free online tool and what we could and could not measure, read Adobe Acrobat vs free OCR tools.

When another tool is the better choice

  • Your pages are in a language on Adobe's list and you already pay for Acrobat Pro or Studio, so OCR is included.
  • You edit, sign or fill PDFs after OCR; Adobe's tool page lists those as Pro features and FastOCR does none of them.
  • You recognise many PDFs in one run and want them written to a folder, which Recognize Text supports for several files.

FAQ

Is Adobe Acrobat OCR English only?

No. Adobe's Export PDF language list names English, Danish, Dutch, Spanish, French, Japanese, Russian, Italian, Traditional Chinese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Finnish and Swedish. It is a shorter list than FastOCR's automatic detection, and it leaves out scripts such as Arabic, Urdu and Persian.

Does Adobe Acrobat OCR support Arabic?

Adobe's Export PDF language list does not name Arabic, so it is not documented there. The desktop dialog may offer more, and we did not test it. FastOCR detects Arabic automatically; on our Arabic scan it got 2.6% of characters wrong, lower is better.

How do I set the OCR language in Acrobat?

Open the scanned PDF, choose All tools, Scan & OCR, then In this file. Pick the page range and the language, then select Recognize Text. Adobe says to choose the language first when the document is in Japanese, Chinese or Korean.

Which Acrobat plan includes OCR?

Adobe's pricing page, checked 4 November 2026, lists "Turn scans into editable PDFs" for Acrobat Pro and Studio but not Standard. Acrobat Pro is US$19.99 a month on an annual plan billed monthly and US$29.99 month to month.

Which languages does Adobe's free online OCR tool support?

Its page names English, German, Spanish, French and Portuguese "and more" and links a fuller list. It takes PDFs, and you sign in to download the searchable result. Text in PNG, JPG and TIFF files is tied to the Acrobat Pro trial.

Does FastOCR need a language setting?

No. It detects the language of each page, including pages that mix two scripts. You can translate the text of a finished image afterwards, and AI Polish can clean it up, but both are for single images, not PDFs.

Can FastOCR replace Acrobat?

Only for recognising text. FastOCR returns text, a searchable PDF, Word and Markdown. It does not edit, sign or fill PDFs, so keep Acrobat if those are part of your work.

Method

Adobe facts come from Adobe's own pages, re-read on 4 November 2026: the Export PDF OCR language list (updated 30 April 2026), the Recognize Text help page (updated 22 October 2026), the Acrobat pricing page and the free online OCR tool page. We did not run Acrobat, so every statement about it is documentation; a language that is not on Adobe's list is shown as not listed, never as unsupported. FastOCR's scores are from our free-tool test of 31 October 2026: one public-domain scanned page per script, scored as the share of characters wrong against the Wikisource text, so lower is better.

Change log

  • 6 December 2025: First published.
  • 29 October 2026: Copy updated.
  • 4 November 2026: Rewritten around the language list and plans Adobe publishes. The earlier claim that Adobe OCR is English only was removed.