How to use PDF to Text
- Add a PDF that contains selectable text.
- Choose whether to add "--- Page N ---" markers between pages.
- Press Extract text, then copy the text or download the .txt file.
About this tool
Sometimes you just want the words: to paste into an email, search with another tool, or clean up in a notes app. Plain text is the lightest format and opens anywhere.
The text comes out in reading order, line by line. Multi-column layouts can mix columns together, which is a common limit of PDFs. For a formatted result use PDF to Word.
Good to know
- Scanned PDFs have no text layer. There is no OCR here.
- Multi-column pages may not read in perfect order.
- Password-protected PDFs need to be unlocked first.
PDF to Text: frequently asked questions
Can I copy text from a protected PDF?
If a PDF is password-protected, unlock it first. Restrictions set by the author are their choice, so use this only on documents you may copy.
Why is the result empty?
The PDF is probably a scan, which is only a picture. Text extraction needs a text layer.
Does it keep line breaks?
Yes. Each visual line becomes a line of text, with optional page markers.