PDF to Text Converter
Pull the words out of a PDF as plain text. It runs entirely in your browser, so the file never leaves your computer.
Getting the words back out
Copying text out of a PDF by selecting it in a viewer produces mangled line breaks, hyphenated words split in half and columns interleaved into nonsense. Extracting it properly gives you the actual characters, ready to paste, edit or save.
Drop the PDF, extract, copy or save as .txt. A page range works the same way as elsewhere: 1-3, 5.
If it comes back empty, it is a scan
This is the one thing worth knowing before you start. A PDF made digitally — exported from Word, printed from a browser, generated by a system — contains real characters, and they come out cleanly.
A scanned PDF is a photograph of paper. It looks like text to you and is, to the file, an image. There are no characters inside to extract, so an empty result is not a failure of the tool; it is a correct report that there was nothing there.
Reading those needs OCR, which is a different kind of software entirely. If you only need the pages as pictures, PDF to JPG / PNG will do that.
Page markers
With the page-marker option on, a --- Page 1 --- line is inserted between pages, which matters when you need to cite or locate something later. Turn it off for one continuous block of text.
As with the rest, the document is read inside your browser by Mozilla's PDF engine and is never uploaded.
Questions
Common questions
What does this tool do?
It extracts the text from a PDF as plain text you can copy, edit, or save — pulling out the actual words rather than turning pages into pictures.
How do I get the text out of a PDF?
Drop a PDF onto the page (or click to choose one), then click Extract text. The words appear in the box, ready to copy to your clipboard or save as a .txt file.
Can I extract just certain pages?
Yes. Type a range in the Pages box, like '1-3, 5'. Leave it blank to extract the whole document.
Why did my PDF come back empty?
Almost certainly because it's a scanned document — really just images of pages, with no actual text inside to pull out. Reading scanned pages needs OCR, which is a different kind of tool. If you only need the pages as pictures, the PDF to JPG / PNG tool will do that.
What's the difference between a real-text PDF and a scanned one?
A PDF made digitally (from Word, a browser, an export tool) contains the real characters, so the text comes out cleanly. A scanned PDF is a photo or scan of paper — it looks like text to your eye but is just an image, so there's nothing to extract without OCR.
What are the page markers?
When the 'Add Page N' option is on, the tool inserts a '--- Page 1 ---' line between pages so you can tell where each page's text begins. Turn it off for one continuous block of text.
Is my document private?
Completely. The PDF is read entirely inside your browser using Mozilla's PDF engine — the same one in Firefox. Nothing is uploaded; your document never leaves your computer.
Our own software
Dictate it instead of typing it
Hold a key, say the sentence, and the words land in whatever Windows window you were already in. Runs on your own PC — no account, no upload, nothing to renew.
$79 launch price · $99 regular · buy once