Side by side
What you get back from each.
| What you get | Basic PDF-to-Word converters | LexForge |
|---|---|---|
| Page structure | Pages may come back as floating text boxes. | Editable headings, numbering and named Word styles. |
| Damaged or smudged text | Left in the page, hard to review. | Uncertain words are highlighted for a person to check. |
| 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. |
| Where the document goes | Check the provider's terms. | Stored and read in the UK; AI processing in the EU with storage switched off; never used to train AI models. Security page. |
| Cost | Free tiers and subscriptions vary. | A free trial with no card, then monthly plans. Pricing. |
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, or a document nobody will edit. If the result only has to be readable, a free converter is quicker.
And when it isn't
When you need the document, not the page.
Typewritten and photocopied scans
Damaged text needs to be marked for a person, not silently kept in 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 reconstruction 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 a scan of your own.
The free trial needs no card.