How to copy text from a PDF

Copying from a PDF usually works. Select the words, copy, paste. But sometimes the text comes out in a jumble, or you want the whole document at once, or nothing can be selected at all. Here is what to do in each case.

Get all the text in one go

  1. Open PDF to text.
  2. Choose your PDF (up to 25 MB).
  3. Press Extract text.
  4. Copy the result, or download it as a .txt file.

The file is read on your device. It is not uploaded.

If you get a message that no text was found

Then the PDF is a scan: every page is a picture. There are no words inside to copy. Use OCR scanned PDF instead. It reads the pictures and gives you the words. It supports English and Hindi.

What you get, and what you do not

You get the words, in reading order, with paragraphs where the PDF had them. You do not get the page design, pictures, colours or fonts. If you need the layout, this is the wrong tool. Keep working with the original PDF.

Why does copied text look broken?

  • Columns. In a two-column page, the text may jump between columns. Read the result once and fix the order.
  • Line breaks. PDFs end a line wherever the page ends. You may have to join broken lines by hand.
  • Hyphens. A word split at the end of a line may show up as two pieces.
  • Odd symbols. Some old PDFs use unusual fonts that do not copy cleanly. If the result is full of strange characters, the OCR tool can be a better choice.

When copying is blocked

Some PDFs are locked by their owner so that the text cannot be copied. If the file is yours and you know its password, remove the lock with Unlock PDF and then extract the text. Do not use it on files you do not have the right to open.

What to do with the text

Try it now: PDF to Text · OCR Scanned PDF