PDF to Text Converter

Drop in a PDF and every word it contains appears as plain text, ready to copy or download as a TXT file. Lines are rebuilt in reading order with the spaces put back, paragraphs are kept apart, and you can join each paragraph's lines into one so the text pastes cleanly into an email or a document, with words broken by a hyphen at a line end put back together. Page markers show where each page starts, or can be switched off. A PDF locked with a password opens once you type it. Everything happens in your browser, so the document is never uploaded.

How it works

PDF to Text Converter is a web page that does its work on your own device. The file you choose is opened by your browser, changed there and saved from there; it is never sent to a server, so there is no copy of it anywhere to delete, no queue and no waiting for an upload. Most online tools of this kind send your file to their servers and work on it there, and many keep it for a while. This one does not. There is no account, no watermark and no limit on how often you use it, and the result downloads the moment it is ready.

Straight to one job

Extract Text from PDF

How the text is rebuilt

A PDF does not store sentences. It stores pieces of text with a position on the page: a word here, half a line there, sometimes single letters. Copying from a PDF reader often shows that, with missing spaces, lines broken in the middle of sentences and columns read across the page. This tool puts the pieces back in the order the page draws them, which is reading order in nearly every PDF, adds a space wherever there is a visible gap, starts a new line wherever the text moves down, and starts a new paragraph wherever the gap between lines is clearly wider than usual.

Lines or paragraphs

Leave Join lines into paragraphs off to keep the page's own line breaks: right for poetry, addresses, lists and anything laid out line by line. Turn it on when the text is going into a document or an email: each paragraph becomes one line that re-flows to fit, and a word split across two lines with a hyphen is joined up again.

Scanned PDFs

A scanned document or a photo saved as PDF is a picture of a page. It has no text to copy, so those pages come out empty, and the tool says which ones they are. Reading the words in a picture takes text recognition, a separate job that is on our roadmap.

What this tool does not do

• It does not keep fonts, bold, tables or pictures. The output is plain text.
• It does not read words inside pictures.
• It does not change your PDF. The original file is only read.

What it does

• Every word a PDF contains, in reading order, with spaces and line breaks put back
• Keep the lines as they are, or join them into paragraphs with broken words mended
• Page markers to show where each page starts, on or off
• Copy all in one press, or download a TXT file
• Word, character and page counts
• Opens password-protected PDFs when you type the password
• Says which pages are scanned pictures with no text in them
• Your file never leaves your device

Questions

Is my PDF uploaded?

No. The text is read out of the PDF by your browser on your own device. The document is never sent to us or to anyone else, and nothing is stored.

Why is a page empty in the text?

Because that page holds no text, only a picture of a page, which is what a scanner or a phone camera makes. The tool names those pages. Reading words inside a picture needs text recognition, which is a different tool and is on our roadmap.

What does Join lines into paragraphs do?

A PDF breaks every line where the page edge was. Joined, each paragraph becomes one line that re-flows wherever you paste it, and a word split with a hyphen at the end of a line is put back together. Leave it off to keep the lines exactly as the page shows them, for poems, addresses or tables.

Does it keep tables and columns?

Text in columns comes out column by column in reading order, which is what most PDFs record. Tables come out one row per line with the cells separated by spaces, so the text is all there but not in a grid. For tables that must stay tables, copy them into a spreadsheet by hand or wait for PDF to Excel on our roadmap.

Can it open a password-protected PDF?

Yes, if you know the password. The tool asks for it and opens the file on your device; the password is not sent anywhere or kept.

Can I get the text of only some pages?

The text shows page markers, so you can copy the part you want from the box. To keep only some pages as a PDF first, use Split PDF.

Why do some characters look wrong?

A few PDFs store their text with a private code instead of real letters, so the words look right on screen but copy out as symbols. Every tool that reads the text gets the same result; for those files only text recognition from the picture helps.

Is it free?

Yes, completely free, with no sign-up and no limit.

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