# Can we highlight/Annotate scanned pdf (for eg. some scanned pages)?

**URL:** <https://pdfjs.community/t/can-we-highlight-annotate-scanned-pdf-for-eg-some-scanned-pages/1030>\
**Category:** Technical Support\
**Created:** [October 6, 2021, 5:04am UTC](https://pdfjs.community/t/can-we-highlight-annotate-scanned-pdf-for-eg-some-scanned-pages/1030 "2021-10-06T05:04:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![aditya.purohit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@aditya.purohit](https://pdfjs.community/u/aditya.purohit)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2021, 5:04am UTC](https://pdfjs.community/t/can-we-highlight-annotate-scanned-pdf-for-eg-some-scanned-pages/1030/1 "2021-10-06T05:04:48Z")

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**PDF.js Express Version**

**Detailed description of issue**  
{I am trying to build a tool where a search result provides PDFs but the user might have a few scanned pdfs uploaded, now as a feature I want to highlight the keyword the user searched. Is there any way i can highlight the words in a scanned PDF }

**Expected behaviour**  
{Provide a screenshot or description of the expected behaviour}

**Does your issue happen with every document, or just one?**  
{Answer here}

**Link to document**  
{Provide a link to the document in question if possible}

**Code snippet**  
{Provide a relevant code snippet}

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**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/uploads/pdfjscommunity/original/1X/ffbcd25c7d423db8d5acd5db201c272f4db306dd.png) [@system](https://pdfjs.community/u/system)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2021, 5:04am UTC](https://pdfjs.community/t/can-we-highlight-annotate-scanned-pdf-for-eg-some-scanned-pages/1030/2 "2021-10-06T05:04:52Z")

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**Hello, I’m Ron, an automated tech support bot 🤖**

While you wait for one of our customer support representatives to get back to you, please check out some of these documentation pages:

Guides:
- [Create highlight annotations in PDF.js Express](https://pdfjs.express/documentation/annotation/create-annotation-highlight)
- [Saving a document as a blob](https://pdfjs.express/documentation/basic-operations/save-document/blob)
- [Disabling flattened annotations](https://pdfjs.express/documentation/annotation/disable-annotations)

APIs:
- [Core.Tools.AnnotationSelectTool](https://pdfjs.express/api/Core.Tools.AnnotationSelectTool.html#__anchor)
- [Core.Annotations](https://pdfjs.express/api/Core.Annotations.html#__anchor)
- [Core.Tools.RectangularAreaMeasurementTool - enableCreationOverAnnotation()](https://pdfjs.express/api/Core.Tools.RectangularAreaMeasurementTool.html#enableCreationOverAnnotation__anchor)

Forums:
- [LoadPageText of docviewer instance is not found](https://pdfjs.community/t/loadpagetext-of-docviewer-instance-is-not-found/535/1)
- [Clicking on highlighted word should draw a box annotation around it](https://pdfjs.community/t/clicking-on-highlighted-word-should-draw-a-box-annotation-around-it/404/1)
- [How to move rubber stamp out of mis tool and remove another group annotation](https://pdfjs.community/t/how-to-move-rubber-stamp-out-of-mis-tool-and-remove-another-group-annotation/844/1)

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**Author:** ![Logan](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/pdfjs.community/logan/32/13_2.png) [@Logan](https://pdfjs.community/u/Logan)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2021, 8:29pm UTC](https://pdfjs.community/t/can-we-highlight-annotate-scanned-pdf-for-eg-some-scanned-pages/1030/3 "2021-10-06T20:29:13Z")

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Hey there!

This is a process called OCR which is a pretty advanced machine learning technique that converts an image of text to machine readable text.

PDF.js Express does not support OCR (no viewer does) - however, our parent company PDFTron has some OCR tools you can use - [here are some guides](https://www.pdftron.com/documentation/nodejs/guides/ocr/) and [here is a sample using Node](https://www.pdftron.com/documentation/samples/node/js/OCRTest). Please note that this has to be done server side.

Thanks!  
Logan