PDF to Text Converter
Extract any PDF’s text in your browser
About this tool
Extract text from PDF files directly in your browser without uploading them to any server. It detects columns and tables, handles Arabic text with CID font decoding, and converts headings, lists and tables into formatted Markdown. It automatically detects scanned files and tells you which pages hold no extractable text, and it opens password-protected files.
The problem it solves
You need a PDF’s text to edit it, search it, or feed it to an AI tool, so you reach for a free converter site that wants the file uploaded to its server. If that document is a contract, a medical record, or customer data, you have just handed it to a party whose storage and retention you know nothing about. And when the output comes back, the Arabic is scrambled, the columns are interleaved, and the tables are destroyed.
How to use it
- 01
Drop a PDF
Drag the file onto the drop zone or pick it from your device. It is read inside your browser and never uploaded.
- 02
Set extraction options
Choose the output profile (faithful or compact), set a page range if you want one, and enter a password if the file is protected.
- 03
Read the document report
Check the document type, confidence, page count, and any notice about scanned pages that hold no text.
- 04
Copy or download the result
Switch between the Markdown and plain text output, then copy the content or download it as .md or .txt.
What it gives you
- 01Text extracted entirely inside your browser — the file never leaves your device
- 02Columns and tables detected, so you get separate blocks rather than interleaved lines
- 03Arabic text handling with CID font decoding through ToUnicode tables
- 04Formatted Markdown output preserving headings, lists, tables and code blocks
- 05Automatic document-type detection naming the pages that hold no extractable text
- 06An explicit warning when the document’s fonts show encoding problems
- 07Download as .md or .txt, or copy straight to the clipboard
What it does not do
The tool reads text that is genuinely stored inside the PDF, which covers every document produced by Word, Google Docs, a billing system, or any other program. What it does not do is optical character recognition: if the file is scanner or phone images, there is no text inside it to read. In that case the tool tells you the document type and the affected page numbers outright, rather than handing you an empty result with no explanation.
Frequently asked questions
01Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. All processing happens inside your browser through a WebAssembly module loaded once, and the file’s bytes are never sent anywhere. That is why there is no file-size limit imposed by me, and why you can safely use it on sensitive documents like contracts and records. To verify: open the network tab in your developer tools, drop your file, and you will see the only request is for the processing module itself — none carrying your file.
02Does it support Arabic PDF files?
Yes, and the engine decodes CID fonts through their ToUnicode tables — the exact mechanism where most tools break and spit out Arabic as mangled symbols. Output quality does depend on what produced the file, though: documents from Word, InDesign or reporting systems come out clean, while some browser-printed PDFs store letters in visual rather than logical order, so words containing lam-alef or hamza can come back with their letters out of sequence. That is a limitation of those files rather than of the tool — reference libraries such as pdf.js return the same result on them. The tool tells you outright when it detects encoding problems in a document’s fonts.
03I uploaded a file and got a “scanned” message with no text — why?
Because the file contains no text at all, only page images. That happens when a document was run through a scanner or photographed with a phone: what looks like letters is really pixels in an image. Pulling text out of that needs optical character recognition (OCR), a different process this tool does not perform. It detects the situation and names the affected pages instead of leaving you with a blank result.
04What is the difference between the Markdown and plain text output?
Plain text gives you the characters and nothing else. Markdown preserves the document’s shape: headings stay headings, lists stay lists, tables stay tables. Choose Markdown if you are feeding the text to an AI model like ChatGPT or Claude — the structure helps it read the document more accurately — or if you are moving the content into an editor or CMS. Choose plain text when you just want the words for searching or processing.
05Does it open password-protected PDF files?
Yes, if you know the password. There is a field to enter it, and it is used inside your browser only to decrypt the file while reading, never stored and never transmitted. The tool does not break protection or bypass a password you do not have.