PDF to Text
Extract text from PDF pages, preview it per page, copy it, or download a TXT file.
The PDF is parsed locally with pdf.js. The file is never uploaded.
Extract text from a PDF
The file is parsed in this browser. Nothing is uploaded and no text leaves the page.
Leave empty to read every page. Use numbers and ranges like 1-3, 5.
At most 300 pages are read per run. Long documents are trimmed to the first pages of your selection.
Summary
Choose a PDF, then extract the text to see how many pages and characters were found.
- Pages read
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- Characters
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Scanned pages have no text layer. Those pages come back empty unless you run OCR first.
Text per page
Open a page to read or select its text. The order follows the page numbers in the file.
How text extraction works
The PDF is opened with pdf.js, and every selected page is asked for its text content. Each text fragment is placed in reading order, spaces are inserted between fragments that were separate on the page, and line breaks are kept where the document ends a line. The result is a copyable plain-text version of the page, not a reconstruction of the original layout.
Why some pages come back empty
A scanned page is a picture of text. There are no characters to read, only pixels, so extraction returns nothing. Optical character recognition (OCR) is needed before such a page can become text, and that step is intentionally not bundled here because it changes the content.
Reading order and columns
Text fragments follow the order stored in the page, which normally matches reading order. Multi-column layouts, tables, and sidebars may interleave lines because the page stores positions rather than semantics. If the order looks wrong, extract the page range on its own and compare with the original.
Frequently asked questions
Is my PDF uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is read with the File API and parsed by pdf.js inside this tab. The page makes no request that contains your document.
Why is there a page limit?
Each page is parsed in the same thread that draws the interface. Capping a run at 300 pages keeps memory use and wait time predictable. Extract a range in several passes for very large documents.
Can it open a password-protected PDF?
No. Encrypted files are rejected with an explanation. Remove the password in your PDF reader first, then extract the text.
What does the download contain?
A UTF-8 plain-text file. Pages are separated by a blank line, and the file keeps the same page order you selected in the tool.