How to extract the text from a PDF
- Drop your PDF file on the box above, or click it to choose the file — or press Load a sample to try it first.
- Check the settings below the box; the defaults suit most files.
- Press Convert. Long jobs show a progress bar and can be cancelled; you then see what was made and its real size.
- Download the .txt file.
What is kept when you extract the text from a PDF
- The text layer of every page (or the pages you list) is read in the order the PDF stores it, with line breaks and paragraph gaps rebuilt from the text positions.
- Pages can be marked with ==== Page n ==== so you can find your way back; words, characters and pages without text are counted.
- Scanned pages are pictures with no text layer. They come out empty and are listed — reading them needs OCR, which this tool does not do and does not pretend to.
Example
The text this tool extracts from the sample report (first lines of each page):
Input
sample.pdf — 3 pages, A4 portrait (440.0 KB)Output
==== Page 1 ====
Solar Energy at Home — Sample Report
Solar panels convert sunlight into electricity using photovoltaic cells. A typical home system
has between ten and thirty panels on the roof.
The cost of solar panels fell by more than eighty percent over the last decade. Lower prices
made home solar systems affordable for many families.
A home solar system produces the most electricity around midday. Batteries store solar
electricity for the evening, when panels produce nothing.
Net metering lets a household sell surplus solar electricity back to the grid. The rules differ
between countries and between electricity companies.
Panels need little maintenance. Rain washes most dust away, and an inspection every few
years keeps the wiring and inverter in good order.
Key figures
Item Typical
…About PDF and TXT files
A PDF holds pages that look the same on every device: text with its fonts, vector drawings and images at fixed positions. Pages can be rotated, reordered or copied between files without redrawing them. It opens in any browser, Acrobat Reader, phone and tablet viewers.
Plain text keeps only the characters — no fonts, columns or pictures — which is exactly what search, translation and analysis tools need. It opens in any text editor.
Good to know
- A PDF that asks for a password when you open it cannot be processed here; protection is never removed.
- If the result is empty, the PDF is a scan (pictures of text). That needs OCR, which is not offered here.
Privacy and limits
The file is read and converted by this page in your browser; there is no upload and no account. Nothing inside a PDF is run: there is no PDF JavaScript engine on this page, and links and forms are copied, not followed. Encrypted PDFs are refused rather than unlocked. PDFs may have up to 2,000 pages, and up to 300 pages are rendered in one run. Files up to 150 MB are accepted; a file of the wrong type or a damaged file is rejected with the reason.