Extract text from a PDF
Extract the selectable text from one PDF into a plain text file, one labelled block per page.
Working…
Questions people ask
- Does this tool read scanned pages?
- No. The tool reads only text that is already selectable in the file, and never runs OCR. A scanned page is an image, so its block in the output says there was no selectable text, and the summary counts those pages. That honesty is deliberate: a tool that quietly OCRs your scans would also quietly misread them.
- What do the page separators look like?
- With the default option on, every page's text starts with a simple line such as "----- Page 3 of 12 -----", so long extracts stay attributable. Turn the option off for plain text with nothing between the pages.
- Can I take text from just some pages?
- Yes. Name the pages with the same page grammar the other PDF tools use: "3", "1-4", "2-4,7,10-12". Blank means every page, a page listed twice is extracted once, and out-of-range pages are refused with the page number named.
- What about rotated or landscape pages?
- Text is read the way a viewer displays the page, so a page stored with a rotation flag still extracts in its reading order rather than jumbled lines of ink.
- What if the PDF is damaged on one page?
- A page whose contents crash the text reader becomes one explicit note in the output, and the rest of the document still extracts. The tool prefers a partly-good, fully-labelled answer over a failed job.
- What happens to my files?
- The upload is removed as soon as processing finishes; the text file stays downloadable for about 10 minutes, then it is deleted automatically.