# Extract readable text from a PDF

Save an existing PDF text layer as a plain-text file. Process locally without installing software; scanned images require OCR elsewhere.

Canonical: https://hipdf.net/extract-text-from-pdf/
Last updated: 2026-11-01

## How to use this tool



### Choose a text-based PDF

Check in a PDF viewer whether you can select a word. A scan may contain no text layer.





### Extract the existing text

Choose Process file. The tool reads the PDF text layer, not the visual appearance of each page.





### Download and review the text

Open the TXT file and check reading order, punctuation and important numbers.



[How to Copy Text from a PDF Without Installing Software](https://hipdf.net/guides/how-to-copy-text-from-pdf-without-installing-software/)



## Input and output example

The three-page example produces a TXT file containing Planning, Budget and Schedule. Page separators are included; printed layout is not reproduced.

[three-pages.pdf](https://hipdf.net/assets/examples/three-pages.pdf)

[View example output: extracted-text.txt](https://hipdf.net/assets/examples/extracted-text.txt)

Public test files created for this site, without personal information. Outputs were reopened and checked; output size: 0.5 KiB.



## Supported formats and limits

PDF input and UTF-8 plain-text output. There is no OCR, translation or table-to-spreadsheet conversion.

Columns, reading order and spacing depend on the source text layer; visually aligned tables may become ordinary lines.

A PDF without readable text returns an explicit no-text-layer error rather than a fake successful download.

A file can be at most 100 MiB; browser memory and document page limits still apply.



## Frequently asked questions

Can I copy text from a scanned PDF?Only if it already has an OCR text layer. This tool does not perform OCR on the scanned image itself.

Why is the text order different?PDFs can position text fragments independently. Extraction follows the stored text items and may not reproduce visual columns or table order.

Will the TXT keep fonts and images?No. Plain text contains characters and page separators, not images, fonts or original page layout.

Does Chinese extraction embed the large Chinese font?No new PDF is created by this tool. It exports existing text to TXT, so it does not embed the site’s PDF-creation font.



## Related tools

[Export PDF pages as PNG images](https://hipdf.net/pdf-to-png/)

[Extract the PDF pages you need](https://hipdf.net/split-pdf/)

[Merge PDF files in your browser](https://hipdf.net/merge-pdf/)

[Browse all walkthroughs](https://hipdf.net/guides/)

## Contact and project

- [v4088697@gmail.com](mailto:v4088697@gmail.com)
- [Official project repository](https://github.com/v4088697-lab/3B-PDF)
- [Agent guide](https://hipdf.net/llms.txt)