Convert PDF to TXT

Convert PDF to TXT to pull nothing but the words out of a document. Scanned files are told apart from ordinary ones automatically, and recognition switches on for them.

What happens when you convert PDF to TXT

Inside a PDF, text is laid out by coordinates: every line knows its spot on the sheet but not what follows it. Copying a couple of paragraphs by hand works fine; feeding the contents to a script, a search index or a translator does not.

TXT strips the markup and leaves the characters. From there anything can read them: a script in any language, a text editor, a search engine. When a file has no text layer, its pages go to recognition and the text is rebuilt from the images.

• Paragraphs and line breaks survive; the division into pages does not.
• Fonts, styles, columns and running heads are dropped, since TXT has nowhere to keep them.
• Images and their captions do not reach the result.
• A scan is detected on its own, with no setting to switch on.
• Recognition is tuned for the Latin alphabet, so a scan in another script comes back with errors.

How to convert PDF to TXT

1. Upload your PDF file on this page.
2. Pick TXT as the output format.
3. Click “Convert”.
4. Download the text file.

Who needs bare text

• Feed the contents of contracts into a search index or knowledge base, where formatting only gets in the way.
• Run the document through a script: split it by lines, count occurrences, pull out reference numbers.
• Move an article into an editor without dragging someone else’s fonts and indents along.
• Hand the material to a translator, who needs the words rather than the layout.
• Read the document on a device that struggles to open a heavy PDF.

Check the PDF before you upload

1. Try selecting a line with the mouse. If the text highlights, extraction runs directly and cleanly; if the whole page highlights, recognition will take over.
2. Look at the script of a scan: recognition is set up for Latin characters and handles others worse.
3. Check the length: a file over 500 pages has to be split into parts.

Limits

• File size: up to 50 MB as a guest, up to 100 MB with a free account.
• Length: up to 500 pages per PDF.
• A scan takes longer than a text file: a large document can run up to 10 minutes.

Picking the format for the job

• You need the tables. In TXT their rows merge into running text. The PDF to Excel (XLSX) converter lays the cells out in columns.
• The text goes into a program. For machine processing the PDF to JSON converter fits better: text and tables arrive in separate fields.
• The document has to be edited with its formatting. Layout, images and tables are kept by the PDF to Word (DOCX) converter.

Other directions for PDF

• You need the columns of figures from a statement: the PDF to CSV converter delivers them.
• The document has to become editable again: that is the PDF to Word (DOCX) converter.
• The data is headed into another system: use the PDF to JSON converter.

FAQ

Is text from a scan recognized?

Yes, this is the one direction out of PDF where recognition starts on its own. Scanned pages are detected automatically.

Do tables survive?

Not as tables. Cells become ordinary lines of text, so exporting to XLSX or CSV suits calculations better.

Why does text from a scan contain typos?

Recognition is configured for English. On scans in other scripts some words come back wrong, especially when the capture quality is poor.

Are page breaks kept?

No. TXT has no concept of a page, so the text runs continuously with paragraphs preserved.