ALL PDF TOOLS37
PDF to Text
Convert PDF to Text — Free Online Tool
Pull the text out of a PDF and copy it or download it as a plain .txt file.
About PDF to Text
Sometimes you just need the words. This tool reads the text layer a PDF already carries — the characters the file stores, page by page, in the order the document stores them — and hands it back as plain text you can copy or download as a .txt. Extraction starts the moment the file lands, with a progress readout per page, and everything runs in your browser using PDF.js, so a contract or a medical record never leaves your machine. Lines are reassembled from the text fragments the page is built out of, and paragraph breaks are inferred from the spacing between baselines rather than guessed at. A checkbox writes a marker line before each page so you can see where one ends and the next begins; turn it off and you get one continuous run of text. Now the limits, because they decide whether this tool is any use to you. There is no OCR. A scanned page is a picture of words, not words, and it comes back with nothing — when every page in a file is like that, the tool says exactly that and does not offer you an empty download, and when only some pages are, it names them. Multi-column pages come out one whole column after another rather than in reading order, and tables lose their rows and columns: cells arrive as separate lines with no structure holding them together. This is text extraction, not layout reconstruction, and it is honest about which one it is.
Questions
Why did my scanned PDF produce no text?
Because a scan is a picture of words, not words. This tool reads the text layer a PDF already carries, and a scanned page has none — there is no OCR here to turn pixels back into characters. When every page is like that the tool says so and does not offer you an empty download; when only some pages are, it names them.
Does the extracted text keep the original layout?
No, and it does not pretend to. Text comes out in the order the file stores it, so a multi-column page arrives as one whole column after another rather than in reading order, and a table loses its rows and columns — the cells arrive as separate lines. This is text extraction, not layout reconstruction.
Can I tell where one page ends and the next begins?
Yes. A 'Mark where each page starts' checkbox is on by default and writes a --- Page 2 --- line ahead of each page; turn it off for one continuous run of text. Switching it re-joins what was already extracted, so it is instant even on a long document, and a one-page PDF never gets a marker.
Is the preview on screen the whole document?
Not always. The preview stops at 20,000 characters — around a dozen pages of ordinary text, fewer if they are dense — because a browser lays out every character it is given and a 500-page document would stall the page. Whenever the cap bites, a note under the pane says so. Copy and Download always carry the entire text.
What format is the download?
A plain UTF-8 .txt file named after your PDF — report.pdf becomes report.txt. There is no formatting, no markup and no encoding to choose; it opens in any editor.
Is my file uploaded to a server?
No. Transmute processes everything locally in your browser using JavaScript and WebAssembly. Your files never leave your device — there is no server, no upload, no cloud processing.