PDF to Text

PDF to text is a free tool that runs entirely in your browser, with no data ever sent to a server. Extract the text from a PDF and save it as a .txt file.

Two kinds of PDF

A PDF produced from a word processor holds real characters: this page pulls them out instantly and faithfully. A PDF from a scanner or a photo holds only page images, with no character to extract. If the result stays empty, your document belongs to the second kind.

Layout does not survive

A PDF describes chunks of text placed at precise coordinates, with no notion of paragraph or column. The tool groups those chunks line by line, top to bottom, which reproduces an ordinary document correctly. Two-column text or a complex table, however, will come out scrambled.

What the extracted text is for

The result is plain text, with no bold, no font and no image. That is exactly what you need to paste the content back into a word processor, feed it to an internal search engine, or hand it to someone for proofreading.

What this tool does not do

This tool performs no optical character recognition: on a scanned document it returns nothing. It keeps neither formatting, nor images, nor tables, and multi-column documents come out in an approximate order.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my PDF return no text at all?

Because it most likely holds only images, as any document that went through a scanner or a camera does. Use the optical character recognition tool, which reads the text inside those images.

Is the document sent to a server?

No. The PDF is read inside the page, on your device, by the same library that displays PDFs in Firefox. Nothing is transmitted.

Is my data sent to a server?

No: the text you type or paste is processed entirely in your browser, on your device. It is never transmitted to a server.

Do I need an account or an install?

No: the tool works directly on this page, with no sign-up and no installation.