Extract text from a PDF
Get the words out of a PDF as plain text, page by page, ready to copy into an email, a spreadsheet or a translation tool.
- 1Add your file
- 2Make it yours
- 3Download & done
Let’s start with your file.
Drop your PDF here. We’ll take it from there.
PDF documents·Or drag and drop a file
Choose a different fileYour files stay on this device. Always.
How to extract text from a PDF
- Choose a PDF.
- Read or copy the extracted text in the box.
- Download it as a .txt file if you like.
Good to know
This reads the text layer stored in the PDF. Scanned documents are pictures of text and have no text layer, so they come out empty. You’ll see a note when that happens.
Questions
Is my file uploaded anywhere?
No. PDF1 runs the whole job inside your browser tab with JavaScript and WebAssembly. The page has no upload endpoint, and its security policy blocks connections to other servers, so the file stays on your device. You can even disconnect from the internet once the page has loaded.
Why is the output empty?
The PDF is probably a scan, which contains images of text rather than text. Recognising it needs OCR, which is not available yet.
Is the layout kept?
Line breaks are kept, but columns, tables and fonts are not. The output is plain text.