PDF to Text
Pull the text out of a PDF, page by page.
PDF to Text extracts the text layer of a PDF and gives it back as plain text you can copy or download. It reads the content streams, maps embedded font encodings back to Unicode, and reconstructs lines and word spacing from glyph positions. It works on your device, with no upload.
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Runs entirely on your device. No file or text you enter here is uploaded. How to verify it.
How to use PDF to Text
- Open the PDF.
- Choose whether to keep the page breaks and layout hints.
- Copy the text or download it as a .txt file.
Questions about PDF to Text
My PDF is a scan and I got nothing back. Why?
A scan has no text layer — it is a photograph of text. Extracting requires OCR, which recognises characters from pixels. That is a different job and is not part of this tool.
Why are some characters wrong?
Some PDFs embed subset fonts with a custom encoding and no ToUnicode map. In that case there is genuinely no information in the file saying which glyph is which letter, and any extractor has to guess. Heuristics cover the common cases; the rare ones come out garbled.
Does it keep the layout of tables?
Partially. Words are grouped into lines by their vertical position and separated by their horizontal gaps, so simple tables stay readable as columns. Complex multi-column layouts need manual cleanup.
Can I extract just a few pages?
Yes. Enter a page range and only those pages are processed.
Can I get text out of a PDF that blocks copying?
If the file opens without asking for a password, yes. The copy restriction is a permission flag that readers choose to honour, and extraction reads the content streams directly. If the file is encrypted and prompts for a password to open, decrypt it first with Remove PDF Password.
Does it handle accented and non-Latin text?
Yes, wherever the PDF carries the mapping. Output is Unicode, so accented Latin, Cyrillic, Greek and CJK come through when the embedded fonts include a ToUnicode map. Right-to-left scripts extract as the correct characters, but the visual line order sometimes needs fixing by hand.
Is PDF to Text really free, with no limits?
Yes. There is no account, no daily cap, no file-size tier and no watermark, because there is no server cost to recover. The site is funded by clearly disclosed partner recommendations on the Partners page, never by metering the tools.
Are my files or text uploaded when I use PDF to Text?
No. Everything is processed by JavaScript running in your browser, on your device. You can verify it: open your browser's developer tools, switch to the Network tab, and use the tool. You will see no request carrying your data — because there is nowhere for it to go.