PDF Text Extractor
Extract all the text from a PDF and view, search, or copy it. Browse extracted text page by page, or download everything as a plain .txt file. Your file never leaves your browser.
Drop a PDF here, or click to browse
Text must be selectable — scanned image PDFs have no text layer
When to Extract PDF Text
Extracting text from a PDF is useful any time you need the raw content without the formatting or layout:
- Copying large sections — copying text from a PDF viewer can break across line boundaries; extracted text gives you clean paragraphs
- Searching and analysis — paste the text into a word processor, spreadsheet, or text editor for further analysis
- Feeding into other tools — use the extracted text in translation tools, word counters, summarisers, or AI assistants
- Archiving — plain text files are the most future-proof format for long-term text storage
- Accessibility — screen readers work best with plain text; extracted text can be reformatted for better accessibility
Limitations
This tool extracts text from the PDF's text content layer. It does not perform OCR (optical character recognition). PDFs that are scanned images of paper documents have no text layer and will produce empty output.
Complex layouts with multi-column text may produce text in a different reading order than expected, since PDF text positioning is based on exact coordinates rather than logical reading flow.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the extracted text garbled or in the wrong order?
Some PDFs use custom font encodings or have text positioned in unusual reading order. Multi-column layouts are a common cause of out-of-order text, since the PDF stores columns as separate text runs rather than flowing prose.
Can I extract text from a scanned PDF?
Not with this tool — scanned PDFs store pages as images with no text layer. You would need OCR software to convert the image to text first.
Is formatted text (bold, italic, headings) preserved?
No. The output is plain text only; formatting, fonts, colours, and layout are not captured. Only the character sequences are preserved.
Can I search across all pages at once?
Yes — type in the search box above and all matching occurrences are highlighted across all pages simultaneously.
