How to Extract Text from Scanned PDF using Make

We prepared this step-by-step tutorial with screenshots to teach you how to extract text from scanned PDF using Make.

Screenshot of Scanned PDF
Screenshot of Scanned PDF

Start by going to the Make Scenarios Interface. Click Create a New Scenario.

Step 1: Create a Google Drive module

Screenshot of creating a Google Drive module

Step 2: Choose Download a file

NOTE: For this tutorial, we’re using Google Drive as our cloud storage. You may use other cloud storage that has a similar option as this.

Screenshot of choosing a download file

Step 3: Set up the Google Drive module

  • Select a connection for Google Drive
  • For Enter a File ID combo box you can choose either Select from the list or Enter manually
  • Choose My Drive as the drive to be used
  • Select the folder and the file that you’re going to use
Screenshot of setting up the Google Drive module

Step 4: Create a new module for PDF.co

Screenshot of creating a new module for PDF.co

Step 5: Choose Convert from PDF

Screenshot of choosing Convert from PDF

Step 6: Setup the PDF.co module

  • Select a connection for PDF.co
  • For Input File combo box you can either choose Upload a File or Input a File from URL
  • For the Source file, you can choose either Google Drive – Download a file or Map manually
  • For Convert Options choose PDF to CSV
  • For the Pages, you can leave it blank if you want all of the pages to be extracted
  • Set Inline to true if you want the extracted data to be displayed automatically, set it into false if you want to get a downloadable file
Screenshot choosing file upload method for PDF.co module
Screenshot of choosing export type for the converted file

Step 7: Run Scenario

Screenshot of running the scenario

Step 8: Get the output link

If there are no errors, you can now check your output link

Screenshot of the output link

Step 9: Extracted text output

Screenshot of output text
Screenshot of output text

In this tutorial, you’ve learned how to extract text from scanned PDFs using Make.

Video Guide