PDF Text Extractor

About this tool

The PDF Text Extractor uses Mozilla's PDF.js library to extract the text content from every page of a PDF document directly in your browser. Pages are processed sequentially with a live progress counter. Line breaks follow the end-of-line markers PDF.js reports, so the output keeps the line structure of the original page; untick Preserve line breaks to join each page's lines into one flowing paragraph for pasting into a document. The extracted text includes a page header separator (--- Page N ---) before each page's content, and a summary shows the page count and total characters. You can copy the full output to your clipboard or download it as a UTF-8 .txt file named after your PDF.

Why use it

• Extracts text from all pages in sequence with a live progress indicator

• Keeps line breaks from the PDF's text layout, so lists and short lines stay readable

• Page separators (--- Page N ---) make it easy to locate content from specific pages

• Runs in-browser via PDF.js — no server, no upload

• One-click copy or .txt download of the full extract

How to use

1. Drag and drop a PDF file onto the drop zone, or click 'browse' to select one
2. Watch the progress indicator as each page is extracted (shows N of M pages)
3. Check the page and character count shown above the output box
4. Click 'Copy' to copy all extracted text to your clipboard
5. Click '↓ .txt' to download the text as a plain text file

When it helps

• When you need to copy text from a PDF that doesn't allow selection in the viewer
• When processing PDF content in a text editor, IDE, script, or LLM prompt
• When indexing PDF content for search or database import
• When extracting text from scanned-but-OCR'd PDFs

Examples

Tips

• If the output is empty, the PDF likely has no text layer — it's an image-only scan that needs OCR first
• Multi-column layouts may produce out-of-order text — paste into a wider editor and reflow manually
• To feed the text into an LLM as one paragraph, replace newlines in your editor after copying
• Use the page separators (--- Page N ---) to grep or search-jump to specific pages in long extracts
• Encrypted PDFs need to be unlocked first — use the PDF Unlock tool then return here
• For very large PDFs, watch the progress counter — extraction can take a while for 200+ pages

Frequently Asked Questions

Glossary

Text Layer

The machine-readable text data inside a PDF that powers selection, copy-paste, search, and accessibility. Required for text extraction; absent in pure-image scans.

OCR

Optical Character Recognition — software that converts images of text into selectable text by analyzing pixel patterns. Required to add a text layer to scanned PDFs.

PDF.js

Mozilla's open-source JavaScript PDF library used in Firefox and on the web. Renders and parses PDFs entirely in the browser without plugins.

EOL Marker

End-of-line indicator that PDF.js attaches to a text item when the layout ends a line. This tool turns each marker into a newline in the output.

Embedded Font

A font included inside the PDF file so it renders identically on any device. Embedded fonts let PDF.js extract correct Unicode characters for non-ASCII text.

ToUnicode Map

A PDF table that maps glyph codes back to Unicode characters. Without it, PDF.js may extract garbage symbols for stylized fonts.

Page Tree

The hierarchical PDF structure listing each page; PDF.js iterates this tree to extract text from every page in document order.

Drawing Order

The order in which a PDF's content stream emits text fragments — not necessarily reading order. Multi-column PDFs may appear out of sequence.