Extract Text from a PDF
Need the text from a PDF for quotes, citations, data entry, or content repurposing? Instead of retyping from a PDF viewer, extract all text at once. The extracted text can be copied to your clipboard or saved as a plain text file for further processing.
How to Extract Text from a PDF
- 1Load the PDF into the extraction tool
Drop your PDF into the text extraction tool. PDF.js reads the document's text content in your browser. Text extraction is local — your PDF file never leaves your device.
- 2Choose the extraction range
Select whether to extract text from all pages or a specific range. For large documents, extracting only the pages you need saves time. You can also choose to include or exclude headers and footers.
- 3Extract the text
Click extract. The tool pulls all text from the selected pages, preserving reading order. Text is separated by page boundaries. Formatting like bold and italic is not preserved — this is plain text extraction.
- 4Copy or download the extracted text
Copy the extracted text to your clipboard for pasting into another application, or download it as a .txt file. The text file is UTF-8 encoded and compatible with any text editor.
Extract text now
Get plain text from any PDF. Done in your browser.
Extract TextFrequently Asked Questions
Can I extract text from a scanned PDF?
No. Scanned PDFs are images — there's no text data to extract. Run OCR first to add a text layer, then extract text from the OCR'd version. Without OCR, scanned pages produce no text output.
Will the extracted text preserve formatting like bold and italic?
No. Extraction produces plain text only. Bold, italic, font sizes, colors, and other formatting are not preserved. Tables are extracted as text arranged by reading order, not as structured data.
Does extraction maintain the reading order?
The tool attempts to preserve logical reading order based on PDF content stream sequencing. Simple documents with single-column layouts extract cleanly. Multi-column layouts, text boxes, and complex page designs may produce text in a different order than visual reading order.
Can I extract text from a password-protected PDF?
You need to unlock the PDF first using the Unlock tool. Text extraction requires access to the PDF's content streams, which are encrypted in password-protected files.
What is extracted text useful for?
Quoting and citing sources, feeding content into translation or summarization tools, analyzing document data, creating accessible text versions, checking for specific keywords, and as input to AI processing tools.
Your document stays on your device
Text extraction runs entirely in your browser. The PDF and its content never leave your device. The extracted text is available for you to copy or download directly.