PDF → Text
Convert a PDF to a plain text file, with its selectable text in page order and optional page breaks.
How to convert PDF to text
- Choose a PDF. The page preview opens straight away.
- Keep All pages, or pick Choose pages and type page numbers in the order you want them.
- Choose whether pages are separated by a page-break character or a blank line.
- Press Extract text, then download the .txt file.
Options
- All pages
- Extracts every page, first to last.
- Choose pages
- Type page numbers and ranges such as 3, 1-2. The text file follows the order you type, and a repeated number repeats that page's text. Up to 1,000 entries.
- Mark where each page ended
- Puts a form-feed (page-break) character on its own line between pages. Many text tools and printers treat it as a new page. This is the default.
- One continuous document
- Separates pages with a blank line only, for pasting into an editor or another document.
- Undo, Redo and Reset
- Step back through your page and separator choices, or return to the defaults, before you extract.
What you get
- One UTF-8 .txt file named after the PDF, for example report.txt.
- Line breaks are rebuilt from where the text sits on the page. Spaces are added where the gap between letters is wide enough to be a word break.
- Fonts, images, tables, links, colours and page layout are not kept. Only characters remain.
- The PDF itself is not changed. You can run the export again with different pages or separators.
Limits
- One PDF at a time.
- Only text that is already selectable in the PDF is extracted. Scanned pages and photos of documents produce empty pages, because this tool does not run OCR.
- Choose pages accepts up to 1,000 page entries per export.
- Password-protected PDFs must be unlocked first with Unlock PDF.
- Multi-column pages, sidebars and tables can come out in a different reading order from the one you see.
- Text inside images, such as a logo or a photographed sign, is not read. Only characters stored as text are extracted.
Check the result
After the export, Deckle reopens the saved text file and compares it with the selectable text in the source pages, then reports the share of characters kept. Open the file yourself and compare names, figures and any text from columns or tables with the PDF.
Related guides
Questions
Can I convert a PDF to text without uploading it?
Yes. The PDF is read and the text file is written in your browser. The file is not uploaded to a server.
Why is my text file empty?
The PDF has no selectable text, which is normal for scans and photographed pages. Run the file through an OCR tool to add a text layer first, then convert that copy to text.
What is the page-break character?
It is the form-feed character (U+000C), the standard plain-text marker for a new page. If you do not need it, choose One continuous document and pages are separated by a blank line.
Will the text keep the PDF's layout?
No. A text file has no layout. Lines and paragraphs are rebuilt from text positions, and columns or tables may read in a different order. Use PDF to Markdown for paragraph-based output or PDF to CSV for one table.
Does it work with other languages?
The file is UTF-8, so any characters stored as text in the PDF are kept, including accented and non-Latin scripts. Right-to-left lines are spaced using their own direction.
Is there a page limit?
All pages has no fixed page count. When you choose pages, the list can hold up to 1,000 entries, counting repeats.
Can I get text from a password-protected PDF?
Unlock it first with Unlock PDF, using the password you already have, then convert the unlocked copy. The button stays disabled until then.