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Extract PDF text

Processed in this browser

File limit: 32 MB

This tool never uploads your input.

Drop a file

Drop a file here or choose one.

Sample workflow: choose a PDF on this device, then Process. The file stays in this tab.

This step may download a library in this browser the first time you use it.

Dump the existing text layer from a digital PDF in this tab. If you cannot select words in Acrobat or the browser, it is probably a scan — use English OCR on a page image, not this extractor.

You need a quote out of a spec or contract and you can already highlight the words. That is this page: copy the text layer in the current tab, without a convert-to-Word upload.

It is not OCR (pixels). It is not PDF to JPG (pictures of pages).

Scan vs digital

Open the PDF. If the cursor can select a sentence, extract here. If you can only rubber-band a bitmap, it is a scan — even if the filename says invoice.pdf.

Permissions can also block copy in some readers while a library still sees the layer. If extraction returns empty, treat it as a scan or a locked file.

How to use it

  1. Drop the digital PDF.
  2. Extract in this tab. Skim for hyphenation and broken columns.
  3. If you needed one page as an image for chat, export that page.

Typical ceiling is about 32 MB.

Honest limits

  • No Excel tables, no layout fidelity.
  • Compress-PDF’s JPEG rebuild will not be extractable afterward.
  • Not legal advice about whether you may copy the text.

To keep a subset of pages as a PDF, split first, then extract.

FAQ

I cannot select text in the original PDF. Will this work?

Usually not. No text layer means there is nothing to extract. Render a page to an image and run English OCR, or ask for a digital export from Word.

Why is the Chinese or accented text garbled?

Some PDFs use odd encodings or custom fonts. We copy what the text layer claims, not a visual rebuild. OCR can be better on a scan of that page.

Is this PDF to Word?

No. You get plain text, not styles, columns, or tracked changes. Smallpdf-style ‘to Word’ is a different, heavier product.

The file is passworded.

Encrypted PDFs may fail. This tool does not crack passwords.

Does extract run after I compress a PDF here?

Our PDF compressor rasterizes pages to JPEG and drops selectable text. Extract from the original, not from the compressed result.

Is the contract uploaded?

No. Typical ceiling is about 32 MB.

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