Typewritten and photocopied scans
Damaged text needs to be marked for a person, not silently kept in the page.
Comparison
LexForge vs basic PDF-to-Word converters.
LexForge Ltd makes LexForge, so read this as the maker's view. It compares LexForge with the category of general-purpose PDF-to-Word converters rather than any named product. Tools differ, so check any converter against your own scan.
The short version: a basic converter gives you the page back. LexForge gives you the document back, with the uncertain words marked.
Last updated
Side by side
What you get back from each.
| What you get | Basic PDF-to-Word converters | LexForge |
|---|---|---|
| Page structure | Pages may remain as positioned boxes. | Editable headings, numbering and named Word styles. |
| Damaged or smudged text | Left in the page, hard to review. | Uncertain words are marked for review, never guessed. |
| Wording check | Varies by tool. | Every draft is checked against the words read from the source. |
| Formatting | The scan's layout. | Your firm's house style, learned from your own documents. How House Styles work. |
| Footnotes | Varies by tool. | Footnote text is kept and returned as editable text in the body rather than as Word's linked footnotes. |
| What you can upload | Varies by tool. | Scanned PDFs and Word (.docx) documents, up to 100 MB; a PDF can contain up to 500 pages. |
| Where the document goes | Varies by tool; check the provider's terms. | Stored and OCR-read in Microsoft Azure UK South; structure analysis in the Azure OpenAI EU Data Zone; never used to train AI models. Security page. |
| Cost | Free tiers and subscriptions vary. | Free pilot with 300 pages and no card. Then Solo £59, Practice £199 or Firm £399 a month. Pricing. |
Prices as of 2 September 2026. Converter descriptions are category-level: a particular tool may do better or worse on any row, so run your own scan through it and compare.
Fair to say
When a basic converter is enough.
A born-digital PDF whose text is already there. A one-off page you only need to quote from. A document nobody will ever edit as a document. If the result only has to be readable, a page kept as positioned boxes may be fine, and a free converter is the quicker route.
And when it isn't
When you need the document, not the page.
Documents you will edit as documents
Headings, clause numbering, definitions and tables have to come back as Word structure, not boxes.
Firm formatting
Your house style applied to the draft, rather than the scan's layout. What a house style is.
Confidential client material
You need to know where the file is stored and processed, and that it is not used to train anything.
Run your own test
Same scan, two drafts.
The sample conversion shows a fictional 1987 lease before and after, with both files to download. Run the same scan through a converter you already use and compare the two drafts for structure, flagged words and formatting.
If you would rather start from the scan itself, read how to convert a scanned legal document to Word without retyping it.
Try it on your own scan
Bring the scan. Get your draft.
Approved pilot users start with 300 one-time pages. No card required.
Start your free pilot →