Support: PDF to Text Converter
Tell us what happened. Include which page you were on and what you expected to see. Most answers go out within a business day.
Common 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.
Nothing happens when I pick a file
The tool runs entirely in your browser, so a very old browser can fail silently. Try the current Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari. Your files are never uploaded anywhere.