Convert
PDF to Text
Pull the text out of a PDF, then copy it or save it as a plain text or Markdown file. The PDF is read in your browser and is never uploaded.
Runs on your device: your file is not uploaded
Drag and drop here
PDFOne PDF, up to 50 MB and 1,000 pages
What PDF to Text does
PDF to Text reads the words stored in a PDF and hands them back page by page. It follows the reading order the file records, keeps the document's line breaks, and leaves a blank line where a wider gap marks a new paragraph.
Your browser does the reading on your own device, so a contract, a bank statement or an unpublished draft is not sent to our server.
Copy the text, or download it as a TXT or Markdown file; the Markdown file can carry a Page heading above each page. You get the words, not the fonts, tables or pictures.
Is this the right tool?
Good for
- Quoting a few paragraphs from a report or contract without retyping them.
- Moving a long document into a notes app or a translation tool as clean text.
- Pulling the wording from selected pages, such as one chapter or clause.
- Checking whether a PDF holds real text or only pictures of pages.
Not the right tool for
- Scanned or photographed pages. They hold pictures of words, which have to be recognized first.OCR PDF
- Keeping the fonts, layout and tables so you can go on editing.PDF to Word
- Getting the figures in a table into spreadsheet rows and columns.PDF to Excel
How to extract text from a PDF
Choose your PDF
Select Choose a PDF, drop the file anywhere on the page, or paste a copied file: one PDF, up to 50 MB and 1,000 pages.
Pick the pages
Leave All pages selected, or choose Selected pages and type what you need under Pages to extract, for example 1-3, 8.
Decide how the text is written
Add page markers starts each page with its number. Join lines into paragraphs removes the line breaks the PDF adds where text wraps.
Extract and check
Select Extract text, then read any page under Preview with the arrows or the page list.
Copy or download
Select Copy all text, Download .txt or Download .md. Change options goes back with the same PDF; Start over clears it.
Worked example
Quoting two pages of a lease
Your landlord sent a 14-page lease, and you want to quote the repairs section on pages 6 and 7 in an email.
Choose the PDF, select Selected pages and enter 6-7. Turn on Join lines into paragraphs so each clause reads as one paragraph, and turn off Add page markers.
Select Extract text, check both pages under Preview, then select Copy all text and paste the clause into your email.
Tips for a better result
- Keep the PDF's own line breaks for lists, addresses and tables, where every line is a separate item. Join lines for ordinary prose.
- Joining lines keeps a hyphen at the end of a line, because one that only wraps a word looks the same as a real one. Clear the leftovers with find and replace.
- Type page numbers by their position in the file. If a cover comes first, the page printed as 1 is page 2 here.
PDF to Text: questions and answers
Why does PDF to Text say my PDF has no text?
The pages are pictures: a scan, a phone photo, or a document exported as images. A picture has no letters to copy out. Open the file in OCR PDF, which recognizes the words and can save them as a text file.
Why do some characters come out wrong?
Some PDFs store letters in a private code that only works with their own font. Copying from such a file gives the same wrong characters here and in any PDF viewer. Running OCR on pictures of those pages is the way around it.
Does PDF to Text keep tables, columns and headings?
It keeps the words and the paragraph breaks, not the layout. A table becomes lines of words, a heading becomes an ordinary line, and columns come out in the order the file stores them. The Markdown file adds only the Page headings.
Can I extract text from a password-protected PDF?
Not while it is locked. If you know the password, remove it with Unlock PDF, then extract the text from the unlocked copy.