PDF to Text

Pull the text out of a PDF, page by page.

1. Choose a PDF to get the text from

Get the text out of PDFs saved from Word or Excel, handouts downloaded from the web and more, page by page.

Drag and drop a PDF here

or

2. Choose how the text looks

Changes show up right away in the text.

With “Page breaks” on, a line like “--- 1 ---” goes before each page. Turn on “Join into paragraphs” to join lines that were cut at the PDF’s line width, so each paragraph becomes one line.

3. Copy or save

Choose a PDF to copy or save its text.

Everything happens on this device. Your PDF is never uploaded.

Depending on how the PDF was made, the text may come out in a different order from how it looks. Tables and columns may not keep their layout.

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How to use

  1. 1. Choose a PDF

    Tap “Choose files” and pick the PDF you want the text from. The text is read page by page as soon as you choose it.

  2. 2. Look at the text

    The text appears page by page. Scroll down to see the other pages. To use just one page, tap “Copy” at the top right of that page.

  3. 3. Choose how the text looks

    Above the text, tap “Page breaks” to turn it off and remove the “--- 1 ---” lines. Tap “Join into paragraphs” to turn it on and join lines that were cut at the line width. The text below updates right away.

  4. 4. Copy or save

    Tap “Copy all” to copy the text of every page at once. To get a file, tap “Download text”.

Great for

  • Reusing text from a PDF you were sent

    Take just the passages you need from meeting handouts or notices and paste them into an email or a report.

    People putting documents together

  • Rewriting a document you only have as a PDF

    Even without the original Word file, you can get the text out and edit it again in a word processor.

    People redoing paperwork

  • Searching a long PDF

    As plain text, it’s easy to search in any editor, count words or compare it with another version.

    People reading contracts or papers

  • Copying part of a PDF on a phone

    Selecting text in a PDF viewer on a phone can be fiddly. The “Copy” button on each page copies it in one tap.

    People reading documents on the go

Good to know before you start

  • Text in PDFs made from scans or photos can’t be extracted (there’s no OCR for reading text in images).
  • Text in tables, columns and figures may not come out in the order it appears. Table cells are separated by spaces.
  • Font sizes, bold, colors and images aren’t kept. Only the text comes out.

About text in PDFs

A PDF stores text as a set of instructions that place characters at positions on the page. It has no idea of lines or paragraphs as such. This tool rebuilds lines and paragraphs from the positions and sizes of the characters, putting spaces between English words and none between Chinese or Japanese characters.

Some PDFs also store characters as look-alike code points (such as CJK radicals or ligatures like “fi”), which then don’t match when you search or replace. This tool turns them back into the ordinary characters before showing the text.

PDFs this tool can and can’t read
Can the text come out?How to tell
Saved from Word, Excel and the likeYesYou can select the text in a PDF viewer
Web page saved as a PDFYesSame: the text can be selected
Scanned or photographed documentNoThe whole page is selected as one picture
Password-protected PDFYes, with the passwordYou’re asked for a password when opening it

FAQ

Answers to common questions before you start.

Is my PDF sent anywhere?

No. The PDF is read inside the browser on your device and is never uploaded to a server. If you enter a password, it’s only used on your device too.

Can it get text from a scanned PDF?

No. A PDF made by scanning or taking photos stores its text as pictures. You’ll see “No text could be found in this PDF”. The tool doesn’t read text in images (OCR).

Only some pages say “This page has no text data.”

Those pages are made only of pictures, such as a scanned sheet or a figure, so there is no text data on them. The text on the other pages still comes out as usual.

Will I get odd look-alike characters that don’t match in a search?

No. Look-alike code points that PDFs often contain, such as CJK radicals, compatibility ideographs and ligatures like “fi”, are turned into ordinary characters before the text is shown or saved.

There are too many line breaks.

PDFs break lines wherever the line width ends. Set “Line breaks” to “Join into paragraphs” to join the lines within each paragraph into one. English words split with a hyphen at the end of a line are put back together too.

I don’t want the “--- 1 ---” lines.

Set “Page breaks” to “Hide”. Pages are then separated by a blank line, and pages without text are skipped.

What happens to tables?

Each row comes out on one line, from left to right, with spaces between the cells. It won’t split into columns like a spreadsheet, so you may need to tidy it after pasting.

The text is in a different order from the page.

The text follows the order in which it is written inside the PDF. Columns, text added later and text in figures can end up somewhere other than where they appear.

What can I open the saved text file with?

It’s a UTF-8 text file (.txt), so any editor can open it, including Notepad and TextEdit. It’s named after the PDF, with “.txt” at the end.

Does it work with password-protected PDFs?

Yes. When you choose one, a password field appears. Enter the password that opens the PDF and press “Open”. PDFs whose password you don’t know can’t be read.

Is it free?

Yes. No sign-up and no ads.

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