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PDF to Text
Extract the text from a PDF into a plain .txt file in your browser, line by line and page by page. Free, no upload, no account. Scans go through OCR first.
How to use PDF to Text
- Drop a PDF file.
- Click Run.
- Copy or download the extracted text.
How to extract the text from a PDF without uploading it
Most PDFs made by a word processor, a browser or a typesetting program carry their words as real text, not as pictures. PDF to Text reads that text layer with pdf.js, the same engine Firefox uses to show PDFs, and saves it as a plain UTF-8 .txt file. Lines stay on their own lines and pages are separated by a blank line. Everything happens in your browser tab, so a contract, a bank statement or an unpublished paper is never sent anywhere.
What you get
One file, paperkit-text.txt, with the text of every page in order. Line breaks come from the PDF itself: pdf.js marks the end of each line, so a paragraph that wraps over four lines comes back as four lines, and runs of spaces left by the layout are squeezed to one. Fonts, colours, images and links are not part of plain text, so they are dropped.
- Plain UTF-8 text, so accents and symbols survive
- One line per line of the page, a blank line between pages
- No fonts, images or formatting
Scanned PDFs need OCR first
A scan is a picture of a page: there are no characters in it to extract. If you cannot select a word in a PDF viewer, PDF to Text finds nothing and tells you so instead of saving an empty file. Run the document through OCR PDF, which recognises the words in your browser and adds them as a hidden text layer, then extract the text from the result, or choose the plain-text output in OCR PDF directly.
Columns, tables and reading order
Plain text has no columns. The text comes out in the order it is stored in the PDF, which for a two-column paper is usually column by column but is decided by the program that made the file. Table cells come out as lines of text without the grid. Check the order before pasting the result into a document, and keep the PDF when the layout matters.
Password-protected and damaged files
A PDF that asks for a password to open cannot be read until it is unlocked, so remove the password first with Unlock PDF, which needs the password you already know. A file that will not open at all can often be rebuilt with Repair PDF before extracting.
Only some pages
The tool extracts every page. For one chapter or a few pages, save them into a smaller PDF with Extract Pages, then run PDF to Text on that file.
Next steps
- Recognise the text in a scan
- Keep only the pages you need
- Unlock a password-protected PDF
- Save pages as images instead
Related PDF tools
- PDF to Images — Turn every page of a PDF into a JPG or PNG image at 72, 150 or 300 dpi. Several pages download as one ZIP.
- Remove PDF Metadata — Strip author, title, producer, and keyword metadata from a PDF to protect privacy.
- Compress PDF — Shrink a PDF by re-encoding the photos and scans inside it at the quality you choose, or fit it under 100 KB, 500 KB or 1 MB, all in your browser.
Frequently asked questions
How do I extract text from a PDF for free?
Drop the PDF on PaperKit PDF to Text and click Download Text. The text of every page is saved as paperkit-text.txt, read in your browser with no upload or account.
Why is the text file empty, or why does it say there is no text?
The PDF is a scan or a picture of a page, so it has no text layer. Run it through OCR PDF first to recognise the words, then extract them.
Does it keep the formatting?
It keeps line breaks and page breaks. Fonts, bold, tables and images are not part of plain text, so they are not kept.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. pdf.js reads the file inside your browser tab and the text file is created on your device.