Extract Text from PDF

Runs in browser OCR & Text

Pull the text layer out of any PDF that has one: reports, e-books, exports from Word. Keep one line per printed line or join lines into paragraphs, mark page boundaries, and copy or download the result. Scanned pages have no text layer — the tool says so and points to OCR.

Privacy: Processed locally in your browser. Your file is not uploaded.

What is OCR?

OCR (optical character recognition) turns the pixels of a scanned page or photo into text: it finds lines and words, recognises characters with a model trained per script, and produces text you can search, copy and index. Accuracy depends on resolution (300 dpi is the usual target), contrast, skew and the script — Arabic and Devanagari need their own language models — and the output should be proofread where it matters.

How to use Extract Text from PDF

  1. Drop a PDF.
  2. Choose pages and layout.
  3. Click "Extract text".
  4. Copy or download the .txt.

Extract Text from PDF features

  • Text layer as the reader sees it, page by page
  • Line or paragraph layout
  • Page separators optional
  • Character count per page
  • Empty (scanned) pages flagged with a pointer to OCR
  • Local processing

Extract Text from PDF example

Get the text of chapter 2

Input:

book.pdf, pages 31-58, paragraphs

Output:

book.txt — the chapter as paragraphs, "--- Page 31 ---" separators

Frequently asked questions about Extract Text from PDF

Why is the result empty or garbled?

Empty means the pages are images (a scan) — run OCR PDF or Scan to Text. Garbled text usually means the PDF embeds fonts without a proper Unicode map; Scan to Text, which recognises the rendered pages, recovers readable text in that case too (OCR PDF skips pages that already have text by default).

Is the reading order right for two-column pages?

The lines are rebuilt from the positions of the text runs, top to bottom and left to right (right to left for Arabic runs). Simple layouts come out in order; multi-column pages may interleave columns, as most extractors do.

Does it handle Arabic and Hindi?

Yes, provided the PDF stores real text. Arabic comes out in logical order, ready to paste; Devanagari conjuncts depend on the PDF’s own encoding.

Is my PDF uploaded to a server?

No. The file is opened and processed by your browser with WebAssembly and JavaScript; nothing is sent to Mutqan Soft or anyone else. Close the tab and the file is gone. Downloading the result needs a free account — no subscription, no payment.

Can I use it on a password-protected PDF?

Yes, if you know the password: the file list asks for it once and every operation then works on the decrypted pages. The output is saved without a password unless you protect it again.

Technical notes

pdf.js `getTextContent()` gives positioned runs; lines are rebuilt by baseline and x-order (the same routine the analysis tools use), then optionally reflowed into paragraphs at blank lines.

References