PDF to TXT Converter
Extract text from PDF documents online for free. Digital PDF text extraction. No software needed. Up to 100 MB.
Drop your PDF file hereTap to choose your PDF file
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Max 100 MB
How to Extract Text from PDF
Upload
Drag and drop your PDF file into the converter above, or click Choose PDF File to browse your device.
Convert
Click Convert to TXT. Our server extracts all text content from your PDF, preserving the reading order.
Download
Click Download TXT to save the plain text file. That's it — no registration, no email required.
When to Extract Text from PDF
Data Processing
Extract text from PDF reports, invoices, or forms for import into databases, spreadsheets, or data analysis tools. Plain text is the universal input format for data processing pipelines.
Search & Indexing
Build searchable document archives by extracting text from PDFs. Plain text files can be indexed by search engines and full-text search tools.
Content Migration
Move content from PDF documents to CMS platforms, websites, or other formats. Extracting to plain text gives you clean content without formatting complexity.
Accessibility
Convert PDF documents to plain text for screen readers, text-to-speech tools, or simplified display focused on content accessibility.
What is PDF?
PDF (Portable Document Format) preserves exact document layout with text, images, and formatting. PDFs can contain selectable text (digital PDFs) or images of text (scanned PDFs). The type determines how text extraction works.
Digital PDFs encode text as character data. Text can be directly extracted with perfect accuracy. Scanned PDFs contain only raster images — text exists as pixels and requires OCR.
What is TXT?
TXT (Plain Text) is the simplest and most universal text format. It contains only characters and basic whitespace. No formatting, no images, no styles.
Every operating system and text editor supports plain text. TXT files are ideal for data processing, search indexing, and any use case where you need raw text content.
PDF vs TXT: Quick Comparison
| Feature | TXT | |
|---|---|---|
| Content | Text + images + formatting | Text only |
| Formatting | Rich (fonts, colors, layout) | None |
| Searchability | Depends on PDF type | Always fully searchable |
| Data processing | Requires parsing | Universal input format |
| Best for | Visual documents, sharing | Data, indexing, processing |
Understanding PDF Text Extraction
Text extraction accuracy depends on the type of PDF. Digital PDFs contain actual text data — extraction is 100% accurate using Ghostscript's txtwrite device.
Scanned PDFs contain only images of text. No text data exists in the file. These require OCR to convert images to text. Without OCR, extraction results will be empty.
Hybrid PDFs contain a mix of real text and scanned pages. To check your PDF type, try selecting text in a PDF viewer. If you can highlight individual words, it is digital. If you cannot, it is scanned.