PDF to TXT — Extract Text from PDF Files
Extract text from PDF files to plain text. No upload, runs entirely in your browser.
PDF to TXT
Extract text from PDF files. Works entirely in your browser — no uploads, no limits.
Drop your PDF file here
or click to browse (max 50MB)
Extracting text from a PDF is one of those operations that sounds simpler than it is. A PDF stores text as glyphs with coordinates — each character is painted at a specific position on the page, and the reading order is whatever order the glyphs appear in the stream, which may or may not match how a human would read the page. The tool reads the PDF’s internal text layer, groups glyphs into words and lines by their spatial arrangement, and outputs a best-effort plain-text rendering. For single-column documents (books, reports, legal filings), the output is nearly identical to the original. For multi-column layouts, tables, and documents with floating elements, the text order requires manual review.
How to use
Drop your PDF
Drag a PDF into the drop zone. The tool extracts the text layer from every page and concatenates it into a single plain-text output.
Choose extraction mode
Layout mode preserves the visual reading order. Raw mode extracts glyphs in the order they appear in the PDF stream, which may differ from visual order for multi-column layouts.
Copy or download the text
Copy the extracted text to your clipboard or download as a .txt file. The output is UTF-8 plain text with no formatting.
Frequently asked
Can it extract text from a scanned PDF?
No. Scanned PDFs are images of text, not text. The tool reads the PDF's internal text layer — if the PDF was produced by a scanner without OCR, there is no text to extract. Use an OCR tool on the scanned pages first.
Why does the text order look wrong on a multi-column PDF?
PDF text is stored in rendering order, not reading order. A two-column layout may produce text from both columns interleaved. Switch to layout mode to approximate the reading order.
Are tables preserved?
No. Table structures (rows, columns, cell alignment) are not preserved in the plain-text output. The text from each cell is extracted but the grid structure is lost. Use a dedicated table-extraction tool for PDF tables.
Limitations
- No OCRThe tool extracts existing text layers only. Scanned documents, image-based PDFs, and PDFs where text is rendered as outlines produce empty output.
- Formatting is always lostBold, italic, font size, colour — all formatting is dropped. The output is plain text.
Platform notes
- Web
- Runs entirely client-side. Your PDF stays on your device.