About this tool
Turn a searchable PDF text layer into reviewable plain text with explicit page selection, ordering policy, empty-page reporting, and browser-safety limits.
PDF to Text reads page text items through PDF.js and produces page-separated UTF-8 text instead of inferring searchability from raw binary markers.
- Uses PDF.js to read the real text layer instead of guessing from raw PDF bytes.
- Supports up to 500 selected pages with bounded range parsing, optional page separators, and content-flow or visual-line ordering.
- Reports page-level words, characters, and empty text layers, then exports UTF-8 TXT and JSON evidence without performing OCR.
How to use PDF to Text
Choose a PDF, enter optional page ranges, extract the text layer, review word and character counts, and download the plain-text result.
When this tool is useful
- When a searchable PDF must become editable plain text.
- When only selected pages are needed for notes or indexing.
- When checking whether a document contains an extractable text layer.
Practical tips
- Image-only scans require OCR and may return empty pages.
- Columns and tables may not preserve reading order in plain text.
- Compare important names, numbers, and headings with the source PDF.
Examples you can test
Load an example, compare the result with the expected output, then replace it with your own input.
Extract selected report pages
Example input
Pages 2-4 and 9 from a searchable report
Expected output
UTF-8 text with a visible separator before each selected page.
Page markers preserve a reference back to the source document.
Validation checklist
- Confirm requested pages are present.
- Review reading order for columns and tables.
- Check important values against the PDF.
- Use OCR separately when pages contain only images.