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Technical Details

Search Index

PDF Content Search uses its own search index based on SQLite Full-Text Search (FTS). The index is completely independent of macOS Spotlight and is managed exclusively within the app.

When a folder is added, every document is processed via OCR and the recognized text is stored in the local index. Changes to files are automatically detected and the index is updated accordingly.

OCR Engine

Text recognition uses Apple's Vision framework at the highest accuracy level. This works entirely locally — no data is sent to external servers.

Digital Text Enrichment

For PDFs with an existing text layer, the app automatically compares OCR-recognized text with the native PDF text. Missing words are added to the search index, improving search quality for digital PDFs.

Privacy

  • All documents stay on your Mac
  • The search index is stored locally
  • No registration required
  • No analytics or tracking data
  • OCR processing runs locally via Apple's Vision framework
  • The optional AI file naming in the iOS app uses the OpenAI API — only the recognized text of the first page is transmitted

Localization

PDF Content Search is fully available in 23 EU languages.

Spotlight Integration

PDF Content Search operates independently of Spotlight. The app does not create or read a Spotlight index. The advantage: the app can also search scanned PDFs that Spotlight would only see as images.

Finder Tags

Finder Tags (color labels) are supported. In the filter panel, search results can be filtered by Finder color tags.