PDF to Text
Pull the plain text out of a PDF's text layer. Everything runs in your browser — your file is never uploaded anywhere.
Drop a PDF file here, or click to browse
It stays on your device — nothing is uploaded.
Getting words out of a PDF
Elena has a 40-page industry report and needs three paragraphs from it for her own article. Copying from the PDF viewer drags along odd line breaks, page numbers and half a footer. Or maybe a translator wants the copy as a plain file instead of a designed layout.
This pulls out the text the PDF already contains and hands it over as a .txt file or something you can copy. Reports under embargo and unpublished manuscripts are the usual candidates, and they never have to leave your machine to be read.
How to convert a PDF to text
- Drop your PDF into the box above, or click to choose it.
- Press "Extract Text" and give it a moment on longer files.
- Use "Copy Text" for the clipboard, or "Download extracted.txt" to save it.
Nothing is sent anywhere
Your browser opens the PDF, goes through it page by page and reads the text objects stored inside. No picture of the page is drawn and no data is transmitted, so a sensitive document is only ever seen by the tab you opened it in.
Closing the page clears the extracted text from memory. If you want to keep it, download the .txt before you leave.
Watch out for scanned pages
A scan is just a photo of a page, so it carries no text layer and the output comes back empty or nearly so. This tool doesn't do OCR and can't guess at words it can't find. Run the file through an OCR step first, then extract.
Even on a normal PDF, text arrives in the order it was stored, which isn't always reading order. Multi-column articles and tables can come out interleaved or with stray spaces in them, so give the result a skim before you quote it.
- No upload
- Your PDF is read locally in your browser — nothing is sent to a server.
- Reads the existing text layer
- This extracts text a PDF already has — it doesn't OCR scanned pages that have no text layer.
Questions
Does the text keep its layout?
Not really. You get plain text with line breaks where the PDF has them and a blank line between pages. Fonts, bold, columns and positioning are gone, which is usually what you want for quoting or translating.
How does it handle tables and columns?
Text comes out in the order it's stored in the file, and that doesn't always match what your eyes follow. Tables can turn into a run of cells separated by spaces, and two-column articles may interleave. Skim the result and tidy it by hand where needed.
Why is the output empty for my scanned PDF?
A scan is a picture of a page, so there's no text inside to pull out. This tool reads existing text and doesn't perform OCR. Run the file through an OCR program first to add a text layer, then extract.
Can I copy the text instead of downloading it?
Yes. After extraction, press "Copy Text" or select directly in the box. If you prefer a file, "Download extracted.txt" saves it.
Is there a page or size limit?
We don't set one. The text is read page by page, so a normal 200-page report is no trouble. Very large files are limited only by your device's memory.
Are my files uploaded anywhere?
No. The PDF is opened by your browser and its text is read on your device. Nothing is sent out, and the extracted text disappears when you close the page.