PDF to Text (Extract Text From a PDF)

Get the words out of a PDF

PDFs are designed to look the same everywhere, not to be edited. When you need the words – to quote a report, translate a letter, reuse a product description, feed a document into a spreadsheet or search a long file – copying from a PDF reader often breaks lines, skips pages or refuses entirely. This PDF to text converter extracts the text layer of every page into plain text that you can copy or save.

How it works

Most PDFs created by software (Word, Google Docs, accounting systems, web browsers) contain a text layer: the characters themselves, positioned on the page. The tool uses PDF.js to read that layer page by page and joins the pieces in reading order, adding line breaks where lines end. Nothing is re-typed or guessed; the text is exactly what the PDF contains.

Mark page breaks (on by default) inserts a line like --- Page 3 --- before each page’s text, so you can find where content came from. Untick it for continuous text – useful when pasting into an editor or a translation tool.

The status line reports how many characters were extracted from how many pages, which is a quick check that every page was read.

Scanned PDFs and OCR

If the PDF is a scan – pages photographed or scanned as images – there is no text layer, and the tool will extract little or nothing. That is not a bug: the “text” is only pixels. You need OCR (optical character recognition) to turn images of text into real text. Options include the OCR built into Google Drive (open the PDF with Google Docs), Microsoft OneNote, Apple’s Live Text on iPhone and Mac, or desktop tools like Adobe Acrobat. This tool does not perform OCR.

A quick test: open the PDF in a reader and try to select a word. If you can highlight individual words, the text layer exists and this tool will extract it.

What about formatting?

The output is plain text. Bold, italics, fonts and colours are not kept. Layout is simplified:

• Paragraphs come through as lines; you may want to join lines in your editor.
• Tables turn into rows of text with spaces between cells – fine for reading, but use a spreadsheet tool for analysis.
• Multi-column layouts (newsletters, academic papers) are usually extracted column by column, but complex layouts may interleave.
• Headers and footers on each page are included; delete them if they get in the way.

Common uses

• Quoting and summarising reports and articles.
• Translating a document by pasting the text into a translator.
• Counting words – paste the text into our Word Counter to check length and reading time.
• Data entry – copy figures and names from statements and invoices.
• Accessibility – plain text can be read by screen readers or enlarged easily.
• Turning text into a new document – paste into a Markdown to HTML editor or your word processor.

Extracting part of a document

To extract text from only some pages, first take them out with Split PDF, then convert that smaller file. If you need images of pages instead of text, use PDF to JPG.

Encrypted PDFs

PDFs that require a password must be unlocked first with Unlock PDF. PDFs that only block copying usually still allow extraction once unlocked.

Privacy

Text is extracted on your device and never uploaded. That makes it suitable for contracts, payslips and medical letters – documents you should not paste into random websites.