How to convert a PDF to text
- Drop your file on Drop a PDF here or click to choose. If the PDF has a password, a PDF password box appears.
- Wait for the progress bar. Then Pages, Words and Characters show above the text.
- Choose All pages or One page at a time (with Previous page and Next page). Tick Add a page marker before each page if you want lines like "--- Page 2 ---".
- Click Copy text or Download .txt. The download always holds every page.
How the text is read
A text PDF stores each piece of text with its position on the page. The page uses Mozilla's open-source pdf.js to read those pieces, then joins them: a new line starts when the baseline moves, a blank line marks a bigger vertical jump, and a space is added only where there is a visible gap. No text is recognized from pictures, and the file is not uploaded.
Worked example with the sample file
Click Try a sample 2-page PDF. It shows 2 pages, 32 words and 180 characters, and the text reads:
Quarterly report Sales rose 12% in the third quarter. The team opened two new offices and hired five people. Region Units Revenue North 120 $4,800 Next steps Review the budget by Friday.
The table row keeps its columns as words separated by spaces. Characters count everything except line breaks.
Limits and edge cases
- A scanned PDF is a picture of a page, so there is no text to read and the tool says so. That needs OCR, which this tool does not do.
- Text comes out in the order the PDF stores it. Multi-column pages can read one column after the other, and some PDFs with unusual fonts give wrong characters.
- Only plain text is kept, with no fonts, images or table borders. For an editable document, try PDF to Word.
- A wrong password shows "That password is not right", and Cancel returns you to the start. Paste the text into the word counter if you need more statistics.
PDF to text questions people ask
How do I copy text out of a PDF?
Open the file here, then click Copy text to copy everything shown, or choose One page at a time and copy a single page. Download .txt saves all pages as a plain text file.
Can I convert a scanned PDF to text?
Not with this tool. A scan is a picture of the page, so the PDF holds no text to read. You need OCR software that recognizes letters in images, and this page will tell you when no text is found.
Why are some words joined, split or out of order?
The tool follows the order and positions stored in the PDF. Columns, headers and footers can come out in a different order than you see them, and a few fonts store characters in ways that cannot be read back exactly.
Does it keep tables, fonts and images?
No. The result is plain text only. A table row becomes a line of words separated by spaces, and images and fonts are left behind.
Can it open a password-protected PDF?
Yes, if you know the password. A box asks for it, and the password is used only inside your browser to read the text. A wrong password shows a message and lets you try again.
Method reference: pdf.js documentation.