How to Copy Text Out of a PDF as Plain Text

How does PDF to Text extract the words?

Most PDFs created from a word processor, a website or a design app contain a text layer: each word is stored as characters with a position on the page. The tool reads those characters with a PDF engine running in your browser and puts them back into lines.

Pieces of text that sit at roughly the same height are joined into one line, from left to right, and lines are ordered from the top of the page to the bottom. A space is inserted where there is a visible gap between two pieces. Repeated spaces and tabs are collapsed to one.

Can I extract only some pages?

Yes. There are three modes. All pages extracts the whole document. Selected page takes a single page number. Page range accepts the same syntax as the PDF Splitter, such as 1-3,5,8-10, and extracts pages in the order you type them.

Ranges must go from low to high and stay within the document, and a page listed twice is extracted once. A progress bar shows which page is being read.

Why is the output empty for a scanned PDF?

A scanned page is a photograph of paper. It looks like text to you, but the file only holds an image, with no characters to read. The tool tells you how many pages had no extractable text and reminds you that scanned or image-only PDFs need optical character recognition (OCR), which it does not include.

For those pages, convert them to images with the PDF to JPG tool and run the images through Image to Text, which recognises printed words in photos. Check the recognised text carefully, since OCR can misread characters.

Will the layout and formatting be kept?

Only the words and line order are kept. Fonts, bold and italic, colours, images and tables become plain text. A table comes out as rows of words separated by spaces, which you may need to tidy before pasting into a spreadsheet.

Multi-column layouts are the trickiest case. Because lines are built from text at the same height across the page, two columns side by side can be merged into one line. If that happens, extract a single page at a time and rearrange the text, or copy each column from a PDF reader.

What are the page markers in the output?

Each page starts with a line such as --- Page 3 ---. The markers make it easy to find where a quote came from or to cite a page number. A page with no text still gets its marker followed by an empty line, so you can see which pages were images. If you do not want the markers, delete them with the Find and Replace tool or by hand.

What are the limits?

The tool reads PDFs with up to 80 pages and up to 20 MB. For a longer document, split it with the PDF Splitter and extract each part. Password-protected files cannot be opened, and damaged files show an error.

Why do some characters look wrong?

Occasionally a PDF uses a font that maps its characters in an unusual way. The text looks fine on screen but extracts as odd symbols or missing letters. That is a property of how the file was made, not something an extractor can always fix. Ligatures such as fi or fl, and hyphens at line ends, may also need light clean-up.

If the extracted text of an important document is garbled, treat the page as an image and use OCR instead.

What can I do with the extracted text?

Common uses include quoting a report in an article, pasting contract clauses into an email, feeding text into a translation or summary tool, counting words for a submission, searching a long document, and reusing your own old PDFs when the original files are lost.

The Copy text button places everything on your clipboard. Download .txt saves a plain text file with the same name as your PDF, so report.pdf becomes report.txt.

Is my PDF uploaded?

No. The PDF is opened and read inside your browser tab, and the text never leaves your device. That makes the tool suitable for contracts, statements and internal documents.

How can I tell whether a PDF has selectable text?

Open the PDF in any reader and try to highlight a sentence with your cursor. If individual words highlight, the file has a text layer and extraction should work. If the whole page highlights as one block, or nothing highlights at all, the page is most likely an image of text, such as a scan or a photo saved as a PDF.

For image-only pages, render the page as a picture with PDF to JPG and run that image through Image to Text, which reads the letters from the picture instead of a stored layer.

How do I clean up the extracted text?

Text pulled from PDFs often has line breaks at the end of every printed line, hyphens where words were split, and repeated headers or page numbers. Paste the result into Find and Replace to remove repeated footer text or to join broken lines, and use the Word Counter to check the length once it is tidy.

Columns, tables and text boxes are the trickiest layouts. Expect to reorder a few lines by hand when a page has two columns or side notes.

How to extract text from a PDF

1. Add a PDF. Choose a file of up to 80 pages and 20 MB. The name, size and page count are shown.
2. Choose pages. Select All pages, a single page, or type a range such as 1-3,5.
3. Extract. Press extract and watch the progress bar as each page is read.
4. Copy or download. Use Copy text, or Download .txt to save a file named after your PDF.

Example

Tips and limitations

FAQ

Can PDF to Text read scanned documents?

No. It reads the text layer only. Scanned pages come out empty and need OCR, for example with Image to Text.

How do I extract text from just one page?

Choose Selected page and enter the page number, or type that number as a page range.

Does the output keep bold text and tables?

No. The output is plain text. Formatting is dropped and tables become rows of words.

What do the --- Page N --- lines mean?

They mark where each page's text begins, so you can see which page a passage came from.

Why are two columns mixed together?

Lines are built from text at the same height, so side-by-side columns can merge. Extract and tidy one page at a time.

What file name does the download use?

The .txt file takes your PDF's name, so invoice.pdf becomes invoice.txt.

How many pages can I extract?

PDFs of up to 80 pages and 20 MB. Split longer files first.

Can I extract text from a password-protected PDF?

No. Unlock a file you own first, then extract from the unprotected copy.

Why do some characters come out strange?

Some PDFs map fonts unusually, so the stored characters differ from what you see. Use OCR for those pages.

Is the text sent to a server?

No. Extraction runs in your browser and the PDF stays on your device.

Why is extracted text missing spaces?

Some PDFs store glyphs without clear spacing cues—cleanup in an editor may be needed.

Can I pull text from only even pages?

Extract the full range, then delete odd sections, or split even pages first if your tool allows filters.

Do footnotes stay next to their references?

Reading order can scramble footnotes; verify academic exports carefully.

How should I handle multi-language PDFs?

Extraction keeps Unicode when fonts encode it; mojibake means the PDF lacks proper Unicode maps.

Will copy include hidden optional-content layers?

Hidden layers may be skipped—enable or flatten content before extracting if text is missing.

Can I export straight to a .txt file?

Yes—use download or paste into an editor and save as plain text.

Why are bullet symbols weird characters?

Custom dingbat fonts often lack Unicode mapping; replace bullets manually after extract.

Is OCR automatic for every scan?

Image-only scans need OCR; native text PDFs extract without it.

How do line numbers in transcripts behave?

They become ordinary text—strip or keep them depending on your editing needs.

Can extraction capture filled form answers?

Appearing values often extract; complex widget-only data may need flattening first.

Sources and further reading

• PDF.js (Mozilla)