Convert PDF to text

How it works

A "digital" PDF, made by a word processor or a website, holds its text as characters: the tool reads them page by page and puts them together. You can then copy everything or download it as a .txt file.

What if the PDF is scanned?

A scanned document is just a series of images: there is no text to extract. The tool tells you so and points you to text recognition (OCR), which reads the letters in the image.

Good to know

• Layout is not kept: columns, tables and headers become plain text. That is deliberate, so you can reuse it freely.
• Reading order follows the file: in multi-column documents, a few lines may end up out of order.
• Special characters are kept, whatever the language.

Use cases

• Quote a passage from a report without retyping it.
• Translate a document with a translation tool.
• Count the words of a thesis or an article.
• Search for information in a long contract.

Frequently asked questions

Is my PDF uploaded to a server?

No. Extraction happens in your browser: the file stays on your device.

Why is the extracted text empty?

The PDF is probably scanned: it only contains images. Use the text recognition (OCR) tool to read the letters.

Can the formatting be kept?

No, the tool produces plain text. To keep the layout, you need a converter to a word-processing format.