PDF to Text
Extract raw text from any PDF into a .txt file. Scanned images without an OCR layer will return empty pages. 100% local.
How to Extract Text from a PDF
Upload the PDF, optionally limit the extraction to a page range like 1-5, 8, and click Extract Text. The tool walks through each page, collects the text fragments in reading order, and joins them into lines and paragraphs. A preview appears with optional page markers so you can check the result before downloading. Click Download .txt to save the full text, or Copy to Clipboard to paste it straight into another app.
What Extracts Well, and What Does Not
Single-column documents, reports, ebooks, and contracts extract beautifully. Complex layouts need expectations adjusted: multi-column pages may read across columns, tables often flatten into lines, and footnotes can land mid-paragraph. These quirks come from how PDFs store text, as positioned fragments rather than flowing prose, and every extractor faces them. Scanned pages with no OCR text layer produce nothing; the tool cannot read text out of pure images. If the preview looks scrambled, the source layout is the cause, not a bug.
Private by Design
Extraction runs entirely in your browser with PDF.js. No upload, no storage, no tracking of your document contents. For structured output with headings and lists detected, try PDF to Markdown. Either way, your document stays on your device from start to finish. For turning pages into pictures instead of text, use PDF to JPG/PNG.
Working with Extracted Text
Raw extracted text is a starting point, not a finished document. Common cleanup: rejoin lines broken mid-sentence, fix the header and footer text that repeats on every page, and delete the page markers if you included them. For search indexing or feeding text to an AI tool, the plain output works as-is. For quoting in a report, a five-minute tidy pass makes it presentable. If the layout is complex, extract in small ranges and assemble the pieces in order.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I extract text from a PDF?
Upload your PDF and click Extract Text. The tool reads every page, pulls out the text in reading order, and shows a preview with page markers. Click Download .txt to save the full result as a plain text file. The extraction runs locally with PDF.js, so your document never leaves your browser.
Will the extracted text keep its formatting?
Plain text has no bold, italics, or font sizes, so visual formatting is not preserved. What you get is the raw text content in approximate reading order, separated by page. Paragraph breaks are approximated from line spacing. If you want basic structure like headings and lists preserved, try the PDF to Markdown tool instead.
Why is the text order wrong on some pages?
PDFs store text as positioned fragments, not as a flowing document, especially multi-column layouts, tables, and magazines. The extractor sorts fragments top-to-bottom, left-to-right, which works well for single-column documents but can interleave columns on complex layouts. For such files, expect to do light cleanup in a text editor after extraction.
Can I extract text from a scanned PDF?
Only if the scan includes an OCR text layer. A pure image scan has no embedded text to extract, and the tool will return empty pages. If you get little or no text from a scan, run it through OCR software first (many free options exist), then extract from the OCR version.
Is there a page or size limit?
There is no artificial limit, but the whole document is processed in your browser memory. Very long documents, hundreds of pages, may take a minute and are best handled on a desktop browser. You can also extract a page range to keep things fast when you only need part of a file.
Is my document uploaded to a server?
Never. Text extraction is performed by PDF.js running locally in your browser tab. The file is read into memory, processed, and the text file downloads straight back to you. The tool works offline once the page has loaded. The tool works offline once the page has loaded.