You need the words from a PDF, for a quote, a translation, a spreadsheet, or to paste into an email. Copying by hand from the viewer breaks lines, drags in page numbers, and takes forever on a long file.

This guide shows how to extract text from a PDF with PDFfans PDF to Text, and explains the one situation where extraction returns nothing: scanned pages.

In This Guide

Text PDFs Versus Scanned PDFs

Two very different files both end in .pdf.

  • Text PDF. Created from a document, website, or report. The characters are stored as text, so they can be extracted.
  • Scanned PDF. Made from photos or a scanner. Each page is a picture, so there is no text to extract until optical character recognition (OCR) reads it.

Quick check: open the file and try selecting a sentence. If it highlights, extraction will work.

Step-by-Step: PDF to Text

  1. Open PDF to Text in your browser.
  2. Add your PDF.
  3. Run the extraction.
  4. Copy the text or download it as a file.
  5. Open the result and compare a few paragraphs with the original.

The tool runs in your browser tab, so the document is processed on your own device instead of being sent to a server. That helps when the source is a contract or a report you should not upload elsewhere.

Cleaning Up the Output

Extracted text is raw. Expect a little tidying.

  • Line breaks. Lines may break where the PDF's lines broke, not where sentences end. Join them if you are reflowing the text.
  • Columns. Two-column layouts can interleave. Read a paragraph to confirm the order.
  • Headers and footers. Page numbers and running titles repeat on every page. Delete them.
  • Tables. Cells become lines of text. For data, check the alignment before you rely on it.
  • Special characters. Ligatures and unusual fonts can produce odd symbols. Search for them and fix by hand.

If the Result Is Empty

  1. Confirm you cannot select text in the PDF. If not, it is a scan.
  2. Use an OCR tool to turn the scanned pages into text first.
  3. Check whether the PDF is password protected. If you own it, see how to remove a password from a PDF.

Only need certain pages? Extract those first with Split PDF, as in our guide to splitting a PDF. Going the other direction? See how to convert text to PDF.

FAQ

How do I extract text from a PDF?

Open a PDF to text tool, add the file, run it, and copy or download the text.

Why is the text empty after extraction?

The PDF is probably scanned, meaning each page is an image. It needs OCR before there is text to extract.

Will formatting be kept?

Not fully. You get the words, and often line breaks, but fonts, colors, and layout are not preserved.

Can I extract text from only some pages?

Yes. Split out the pages you need first, then extract from the smaller file.

Related: PDF to Text, Split PDF, Text to PDF. Background: OCR on Wikipedia.