Why is the result empty?

The pages are almost certainly scans — images of text rather than text. Extraction can only return what is stored as text in the file.

Why is the column order wrong?

Text comes out in the order the PDF draws it, which for multi-column layouts and tables often differs from reading order. Short passages usually need a tidy-up.

Is my document uploaded?

No. It is read in the page by PDF.js on your own device.

PDF Text Extractor

Pull the text out of a PDF, page by page, ready to copy or download as a text file.

Processing: This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your input and any file you open stay on your device — nothing is uploaded to a server. Limited by your device's memory rather than a server quota. Large scanned documents are the slowest.

How to use the pdf text extractor

Open the PDF.
Choose the pages, and whether to mark page breaks.
Extract, then copy the text or download it as .txt.

About this tool

Most PDFs store their words as text alongside instructions for where to draw them. This reads that text layer and reassembles it in reading order, keeping line breaks so paragraphs stay legible rather than collapsing into one long line.

What it cannot do is read a scan. A photographed or scanned page contains an image, not text, and no amount of extraction will find words in it — the tool says so explicitly rather than handing back an empty box. That job needs OCR, which is a separate tool still to be built.

Complex layouts also have limits worth knowing: multi-column pages, tables and text inside figures come out in the order the file draws them, which is not always the order you read them.

Common uses

Quoting from a report without retyping it.
Getting text out of a PDF for translation or analysis.
Checking what text a PDF actually contains.

Frequently asked questions

Why is the result empty?: The pages are almost certainly scans — images of text rather than text. Extraction can only return what is stored as text in the file.
Why is the column order wrong?: Text comes out in the order the PDF draws it, which for multi-column layouts and tables often differs from reading order. Short passages usually need a tidy-up.
Is my document uploaded?: No. It is read in the page by PDF.js on your own device.

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