PDF to Text
Extract raw text from a PDF document.
PDF to Text pulls the raw text layer out of a document and shows it in an editable monospace box you can copy or download as .txt. Line breaks are inferred from vertical spacing and end-of-line flags, with a blank line between pages. Everything runs through PDF.js in your browser — ideal for notes, legal boilerplate, or feeding text into another tool.
There is no OCR here: scanned/image-only PDFs yield empty output (the tool says so explicitly). If the text layer exists, extraction usually finishes in seconds with a page-progress bar.
How it works
After load, each page’s getTextContent() returns positioned string items. The extractor inserts a newline when a vertical jump exceeds half the text height or when hasEOL is set, then joins pages with double newlines and trims.
Empty results toast that the file might be a scanned image. Non-empty results unlock Copy (clipboard) and Download .txt ({basename}-extracted.txt). The textarea stays editable — edits are included in copy/download because they share the same state.
How to use
- Open PDF to Text and drop or click your PDF.
- Verify the page-1 preview and read the Ready to Extract blurb.
- Click Extract Text and watch Reading Text… / Scanning page X of Y.
- Review output in the textarea (placeholder: No text was found... if empty).
- Fix typos or reflow directly in the box if needed.
- Click Copy for the clipboard, or Download .txt for {name}-extracted.txt.
- Use Change File to process another document.
- For scanned PDFs, OCR elsewhere first — this tool only reads existing text.
Tips
- Scanned bills without a text layer return empty — run OCR before expecting text.
- Edits in the textarea are saved with Copy/Download; clean headers before exporting.
- Complex multi-column layouts may interleave — treat output as a starting draft.
- Pages separate with a blank line so you can split sections downstream.
PDF to Text FAQ
Does this tool do OCR?
No. It only extracts an existing text layer via PDF.js. Image-only scans need OCR first.
Why is the text empty?
Most likely a scanned PDF without selectable text. The toast calls this out.
Can I edit before saving?
Yes — the textarea is fully editable; Copy and Download include your edits.
What filename is downloaded?
{original-basename}-extracted.txt
Are files uploaded?
No. Extraction runs entirely in the browser.
Credits
- PDF.js — getTextContent and page cleanup for raw extraction