Turkish OCR — Image to Text & PDF

Why Turkish OCR Is Challenging

• Recognizing Turkish-specific characters ç, ğ, ı, İ, ö, ş, ü that are absent from basic Latin
• Distinguishing dotted İ/i from dotless I/ı — a unique Turkish orthographic distinction
• Handling the soft-g (ğ) which has a small breve that is easily lost in low-resolution scans
• Processing Ottoman Turkish documents that use Arabic script instead of modern Latin alphabet
• Correctly interpreting Turkish suffixes and agglutinative word forms that create very long words

How to Extract Turkish Text from a PDF & Images

1. Go to fastocr.org
2. Upload your Turkish image or PDF. Language is detected automatically.
3. Wait for processing — images take seconds, PDFs show a progress bar.
4. Download results: searchable PDF, raw text file, or copy text directly.

Tips for Better Turkish OCR Accuracy

1. Verify the dotted/dotless i distinction (İ/i vs I/ı) — this is the most common Turkish OCR error
2. Scan at 300 DPI to preserve the breve on ğ and cedilla on ç and ş
3. Check that ö and ü are not replaced with German umlauts or plain o and u
4. For agglutinative words, verify that long suffixed forms are kept intact and not split

Common Use Cases for Turkish OCR

• Digitizing Turkish legal documents, contracts, and court decisions
• Extracting text from Turkish government forms and official certificates
• Converting scanned Turkish academic papers and university theses
• Processing Turkish business invoices and commercial correspondence
• Archiving Turkish newspaper archives and literary publications

Frequently Asked Questions