How to Extract Text from a PDF Online — Instructions and Tips
Extracting text from a PDF is an everyday task for office workers, students, and analysts. Copying text from a PDF isn't always possible — it depends on how the document was created. Let's explore the nuances and show you how to do it quickly.
Text-Based PDF vs. Scanned PDF
There are two fundamentally different types of PDF files:
- Text-based PDF — created from Word, Excel, Google Docs, or another editor. It contains a text layer, and text can be extracted directly while preserving formatting.
- Scanned PDF — essentially a collection of images. There is no text layer, so simple extraction doesn't work. These documents require optical character recognition (OCR).
Our text extraction tool works with text-based PDFs. If your document is a scan, use the OCR tool instead.
How to Extract Text
- Open the PDF text extraction page.
- Upload your file by dragging and dropping or using the button.
- Text will be extracted automatically from all pages.
- Copy the result or download it as a text file.
Processing happens entirely in your browser — the file never leaves your computer.
Common Issues and Solutions
- Text is extracted incorrectly. The PDF may use non-standard fonts without an encoding table. Try opening the file in Adobe Reader and copying the text from there.
- No text is extracted at all. Most likely, this is a scanned PDF. Use the OCR tool.
- Paragraph structure is broken. PDFs store text in blocks, and the extraction order may differ from the visual layout. For complex layouts (multiple columns), the result may require manual correction.
When This Is Useful
Analysts extract data from reports for further processing. Students copy quotes from textbooks. Translators obtain source text for their work. Content managers transfer text from PDFs to websites. If you need to work with specific pages, first split the PDF, then extract text from the section you need.
Extract text from a PDF right now using our free tool.