PDF Text Extractor
PDF Text Extractor reads the text layer of any PDF file and outputs clean, copyable text — entirely in your browser. No upload, no server, no account needed. Works with any searchable PDF.
Drop a PDF or click to browse
Searchable PDFs only — scanned images won't work
Frequently asked questions
Does this work on scanned PDFs?
No. Scanned PDFs are images — they have no text layer. This tool only works on PDFs with selectable text (e.g. exported from Word, Google Docs, or web pages). For scanned documents you'd need OCR software, which this tool does not provide.
Is my file uploaded anywhere?
No. All processing happens locally using PDF.js in your browser tab. Nothing is sent to any server.
How can I tell if my PDF has selectable text?
Open the PDF in any viewer and try to select text with your mouse. If a text cursor highlights individual words and letters, the PDF has a text layer and this tool will work. If selecting just draws a box around the whole page, it's an image-based scan.
Does it preserve formatting like tables or columns?
No. The output is plain text in the order PDF.js reads it from the page, which is usually left-to-right, top-to-bottom. Multi-column layouts and tables may come out with text interleaved or reordered.
Can I extract text from just a few pages?
Yes. Enter a page range (e.g. 2-5) instead of extracting the whole document, which is useful for long reports where you only need one section.
Why is some text missing from the output?
Some PDFs embed text as vector outlines or use custom font encodings without a usable text layer for those specific elements — headers, footers, or stylized text may not extract even if the body text does.
What can I do with the extracted text?
Copy it into a word processor, search it with Ctrl+F, paste it into a translation tool, or feed it into another Small Web Apps tool like Word Counter or Word Frequency Counter.