PDF to Text
Extract text content from PDF files online with page-by-page output. Free PDF to text converter for copying content from documents.
Drop a PDF file here or click to browse
Extract text content from your PDF. All processing happens in your browser.
About PDF to Text
The PDF to Text tool extracts readable text content from PDF documents directly in your browser. Whether you need to copy text from a scanned report, pull quotes from an e-book, or convert an entire PDF into a plain text file for further processing, this tool handles it quickly and privately.
Text extraction is powered by pdfjs-dist (Mozilla's PDF.js library), the same engine used by Firefox to render PDFs. It reads the text layer embedded in PDF files, producing clean output with proper line breaks and word spacing. Note that image-based PDFs (scanned without OCR) will not contain extractable text; for those, use a dedicated OCR tool.
Key Features
Page-by-Page Output
Text is organized with clear page separators so you can easily identify which content came from which page. Extract all pages or only the ones you need.
Copy & Download
Copy extracted text to your clipboard with one click, or download it as a .txt file. The output is plain text, compatible with any text editor or word processor.
100% Private
Your PDF files never leave your device. All text extraction is done locally in your browser. No server uploads, no cloud processing, no data retention of any kind.
Instant Extraction
No waiting for server processing. Text extraction starts immediately and processes even large documents in seconds. Character and word counts are shown automatically.
How to Extract Text from a PDF
Upload Your PDF
Click the upload area or drag and drop your PDF file. The tool will read the document and display the page count and file size.
Choose Pages
Extract text from all pages, or switch to "Selected Pages" mode and specify exact page numbers or ranges (e.g., "1-5,8,10-12").
Extract & Use
Click "Extract Text" to process. The extracted text appears in a text box with page separators. Copy it to your clipboard or download as a .txt file.
Common Use Cases
Research & Quotes
Extract specific passages from academic papers, reports, or books for citation, analysis, or note-taking without manual retyping.
Data Processing
Convert PDF tables, lists, or structured data into plain text for importing into spreadsheets, databases, or other tools that need raw text input.
Accessibility
Extract text from PDF documents to make the content available to screen readers, text-to-speech tools, or for reformatting into more accessible formats.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the extracted text empty or garbled?
If the PDF was created from a scanned image without OCR processing, it does not contain a text layer, and this tool will extract little or no text. For scanned documents, use an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) tool to convert the image to text first.
Does it preserve formatting like bold or italic?
The output is plain text only. Bold, italic, font size, and other styling information is not preserved. The tool focuses on extracting the raw textual content with proper line breaks and spacing.
Can I extract text from password-protected PDFs?
The tool attempts to open PDFs with default permissions. If the PDF requires a password to open or has copy-protection restrictions, text extraction may fail. You may need to unlock the PDF first.
Is there a page limit?
There is no artificial page limit. Since all processing happens in your browser, the practical limit depends on your device's memory. Most users can process documents with hundreds of pages without issue.
How to Use PDF to Text
Open PDF to Text
Navigate to PDF to Text in your browser.
Upload your file
Click the upload area or drag and drop your file. It will be processed locally in your browser.
Configure settings
Adjust any available options such as quality, format, or output preferences.
Download the result
Once processing is complete, click Download to save the output file to your device.
Frequently Asked Questions
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