Extract text from any PDF document instantly. Upload your file and get all the text content organized by page. Copy to clipboard or download as a TXT file. All processing happens in your browser.
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Extracting text...
Get the text content from any PDF document in three simple steps — no software installation required.
Drag and drop your PDF file into the upload area, or click "Choose PDF File" to browse your device. The tool accepts any standard PDF document regardless of page count, file size, or complexity. Whether your file has five pages or five hundred, it loads instantly in the browser so text extraction can begin right away without waiting for a server upload.
As soon as your file is loaded, the tool automatically reads every page and extracts all embedded text content using PDF.js. Text from each page is separated with clear page markers so you can easily identify where content comes from. The extraction process typically completes in just a few seconds, even for large documents with hundreds of pages.
Once extraction is complete, the full text appears in a scrollable text area. Review the content, then click "Copy Text" to copy everything to your clipboard for pasting into any application, or click "Download TXT" to save the extracted text as a plain .txt file to your device. Your original PDF is never modified.
A faster, safer, and more convenient way to get text from PDF files — built for everyone.
There is no premium tier, no usage cap, and no hidden paywall. ConvertKr's PDF to text extractor is free for everyone, whether you need to extract text from a single document or process dozens of files in a row. We believe essential file tools should be accessible without a subscription or per-file charge.
Unlike most online PDF tools, your files never leave your device. All text extraction happens locally in your browser using JavaScript and PDF.js. There is no server upload, no temporary cloud storage, and no risk of your confidential documents being accessed by anyone else.
Extracted text is clearly organized with page separators so you can identify exactly which content came from which page. This makes it easy to reference specific sections, copy text from particular pages, or verify the extraction against the original document.
Because everything runs in your browser using PDF.js, text extraction starts immediately with no upload wait time. A typical 50-page document is fully extracted in just a few seconds. There is no queue, no rate limiting, and no waiting for server resources to become available.
Two convenient ways to use your extracted text. Click "Copy Text" to instantly copy everything to your clipboard for pasting into emails, documents, or any application. Or click "Download TXT" to save the text as a plain .txt file that you can open in any text editor on any operating system.
ConvertKr runs entirely in your web browser, so it works on smartphones and tablets just as well as on desktop computers. There is nothing to install — if your device has a modern browser with JavaScript enabled, you can extract text from PDFs on the go. The interface is fully responsive and optimized for touch screens.
Everything you need to know about extracting text from PDF documents.
Why Extract Text from a PDF? PDF documents are designed for consistent visual presentation across devices, but that formatting often makes it difficult to reuse the text content. You might need to copy a few paragraphs into an email, extract data for a spreadsheet, quote passages in a research paper, or migrate content from an old PDF into a new document format. Manually selecting and copying text from a PDF reader can be tedious, especially with multi-page documents where formatting issues cause missed line breaks, merged words, or garbled characters. A dedicated text extraction tool solves these problems by reading the underlying text layer of the PDF and presenting it as clean, copyable plain text.
How PDF Text Extraction Works ConvertKr uses PDF.js — the same open-source rendering engine that powers Firefox's built-in PDF viewer — to read the text content layer of your document. Each PDF page can contain multiple types of content: vector graphics, raster images, and text objects. The extraction process specifically targets the text objects, reading each character along with its position on the page. The tool then assembles these characters into readable text, preserving the natural reading order. Text from each page is clearly separated with page markers so you can easily navigate through the output.
Text-Based PDFs vs. Scanned PDFs It is important to understand the difference between text-based PDFs and scanned PDFs. A text-based PDF — created by exporting from Word, Google Docs, LaTeX, or any other application — contains actual text characters that can be read and extracted programmatically. A scanned PDF, on the other hand, contains photographs of pages taken by a scanner or camera. Even though you can see text in a scanned PDF, the file actually contains images, not text data. This tool works with text-based PDFs. If your PDF was created by scanning paper documents, you will need OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software to convert the images into text first.
Formatting Considerations The extracted text is plain text without any formatting such as bold, italic, font sizes, or colors. Complex layouts like multi-column documents, tables, and sidebars may not be perfectly represented in the linear text output because PDF text objects do not always follow a simple top-to-bottom, left-to-right order. For most standard documents — reports, articles, books, contracts, and letters — the extraction produces clean, accurate text that closely matches the reading experience. For documents with complex layouts, you may need to do some minor manual cleanup after extraction.
Privacy and Security All text extraction happens entirely within your web browser. Your PDF file is read into memory using the JavaScript FileReader API, processed by PDF.js, and the extracted text is displayed on screen. At no point does any data leave your device. There are no network requests, no server uploads, and no cookies or tracking related to your files. This makes the tool safe for confidential documents, legal files, financial records, medical information, and any other sensitive content. Once you close or refresh the browser tab, all data is cleared from memory.
Everything you need to know about extracting text from PDFs with ConvertKr.
The tool extracts raw text content from the PDF. Basic reading order is preserved, but complex formatting such as tables, multi-column layouts, headers, footers, and precise spacing may not be perfectly replicated. The output is plain text organized by page, which works well for most documents with standard single-column layouts. For documents with complex formatting, some manual cleanup may be needed.
No. This tool extracts text that is embedded in the PDF as actual text data. Scanned documents and image-based PDFs contain photographs of pages rather than actual text characters, so there is nothing for the tool to extract. If you upload a scanned PDF, the output will be empty or contain only metadata. For scanned documents, you would need an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) tool.
For PDFs with embedded text (not scanned images), the extraction is highly accurate. The tool uses PDF.js — the same engine Firefox uses — to read the text layer. Every character is extracted exactly as stored in the PDF. The only variation you may notice is in spacing and line breaks, which depend on how the original PDF was created and its internal text object layout.
Yes. The tool supports any language and character set embedded in the PDF, including Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Thai, and more. As long as the text is stored as actual text data in the PDF with the appropriate font information, it will be extracted correctly. Some PDFs with custom or subset fonts may produce unexpected results in rare cases.
Absolutely. All text extraction happens entirely in your browser using JavaScript and PDF.js. Your files are never uploaded to any server, and we cannot see, access, or store your documents. Once you close the browser tab, all data is gone. This makes ConvertKr safe for confidential documents, legal files, financial records, and personal information.
ConvertKr does not impose any artificial file size or page count limits. Since all processing runs locally in your browser, the practical ceiling depends on your device's available RAM and processing power. Most modern computers and phones handle PDFs with several hundred pages without any issues. Very large files may take slightly longer to process.
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