Search scanned documents without sending them to the cloud

Nest helps you keep important documents in a local Windows library and find them later by text, title, tags, dates, and notes.

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The problem with scans

Scanned documents are useful until you need to find one again.

A receipt, letter, invoice, bank statement, or form may be saved somewhere on your computer with a name like scan_0037.jpg or document.pdf. Months later, that name does not help much.

Scanned text is often not searchable by default, the filename rarely describes the contents, and remembering where you saved something is hard. Sending private papers to an online OCR service is not always something you want to do.

How Nest helps

Make supported scans easier to find.

Nest keeps scanned and downloaded documents in a local Windows library, with search, titles, categories, tags, dates, and notes. It extracts searchable text from supported document types as you import them.

For scanned PDFs and image files, Nest can run OCR to detect text and make that text searchable inside the local library. That means a document does not have to be found only by its filename - you can also add your own details, such as a clearer title, category, tags, date, and notes.

Honest expectations

OCR helps, but it is not magic.

OCR works best with clear scans and readable text. Poor scan quality, unusual layouts, handwriting, low contrast, or rotated pages can reduce the quality of text recognition.

For important documents, Nest still lets you add your own title, tags, dates, and notes, so the document stays findable even when OCR is imperfect.

Local search, not cloud OCR

Your documents stay on your computer.

Nest is a Windows desktop app. Your document library stays on your computer. You do not need to create an account, upload documents to a web service, or use a cloud dashboard just to search your own files.

No account required
No upload to an online OCR service
The library stays on your computer

Nest search results on Windows — a search term in the search box, the document list filtered to matching documents, and a selected scanned document with its thumbnail, tags and notes.

A simple scanned-document workflow

Scan, import, add a few details, find it later.

Import a scan into Nest and let it index what it can. For a scanned PDF or image, run OCR so the detected text becomes searchable. Then add the details that matter: a readable title, useful tags, a category, a date, and notes.

Later, search for a word, name, vendor, topic, or tag and open the document when you need it.

Try Nest

Try Nest free for 30 days.

A local Windows app for organizing and searching important documents.

Download for Windows View pricing

Related: keep document management private. See also help and privacy.