PDFs are designed to preserve formatting, not to share editable content. When you need the actual text from a PDF—for analysis, editing, translation, data processing, or any other purpose—you need to extract it. The approach depends on what kind of PDF you have: digital PDFs created from text sources extract easily; scanned PDFs (images of documents) require OCR. Here's the complete guide to getting text out of PDFs.
TL;DR
- Digital PDFs: Use TinyUtils Document Converter → Plain Text output
- Scanned PDFs: Need OCR (optical character recognition) first
- Quick test: Can you select text in the PDF? If yes, it's digital and extracts easily
- Tables and formatting: May need cleanup after extraction
Understanding PDF Types
Digital PDFs (Easy to Extract)
Digital PDFs contain actual text data. They're created when you export from Word, save a webpage as PDF, use "Print to PDF," or create a PDF from any text source. The text is stored as character data—the same way your word processor stores it.
Characteristics of digital PDFs:
- You can select individual words and sentences
- Copy-paste works
- You can search within the document (Ctrl/Cmd+F)
- File size is typically smaller than image-based PDFs
Scanned PDFs (Requires OCR)
Scanned PDFs are essentially images wrapped in a PDF container. They're created by scanning paper documents or photographing pages. What looks like text is actually pixels—there's no underlying text data.
Characteristics of scanned PDFs:
- You can only select the entire page as an image
- Copy-paste doesn't work for text
- Search doesn't find words in the document
- File size is often larger (image data is bulky)
- Zoom reveals pixelation rather than crisp text
Hybrid PDFs
Some PDFs contain both digital text and scanned images. OCR may have been applied to some pages but not others. Test multiple pages to understand what you're working with.
How to Tell What Type You Have
- Open the PDF in any viewer
- Try to select text by clicking and dragging
- If you can highlight individual words → Digital (easy extraction)
- If you can only select the whole page as one block → Scanned (needs OCR)
- Try Ctrl/Cmd+F and search for a visible word
- If the search works → Digital
- If "no matches found" for visible text → Scanned
Extracting Text from Digital PDFs
Using TinyUtils Document Converter
- Navigate to TinyUtils Document Converter
- Upload your PDF file
- Select Plain Text as the output format
- Click Convert
- Download the .txt file containing all extracted text
Output Formats
Plain text isn't your only option. Depending on what you need:
- Plain Text (.txt): Just the text, no formatting
- Markdown (.md): Preserves some structure (headings, lists)
- HTML (.html): Keeps more formatting as HTML tags
- DOCX (.docx): Editable Word document with formatting
What Gets Extracted
- All text content from all pages
- Text reading order (as best as the PDF structure allows)
- Paragraph breaks (usually)
What May Be Lost
- Precise formatting (fonts, sizes, colors)
- Page layout (columns become linear text)
- Tables (become separated text)
- Headers and footers (mixed into content)
- Images (not extracted to plain text)
Extracting Text from Scanned PDFs
Scanned PDFs require Optical Character Recognition (OCR)—technology that "reads" images of text and converts them to actual text data.
OCR Process
- The OCR software analyzes each page image
- It identifies letter shapes and patterns
- It converts recognized shapes to text characters
- The text is output for your use
OCR Options
- Google Docs: Upload a PDF to Google Drive, open with Google Docs—it runs OCR automatically
- Adobe Acrobat: Built-in OCR in the Pro version
- Online OCR services: Various web-based tools
- Desktop software: ABBYY FineReader, OmniPage, and others
OCR Accuracy Factors
- Image quality: Clear scans produce better results
- Font types: Standard fonts are recognized better than unusual ones
- Document condition: Faded, wrinkled, or damaged documents reduce accuracy
- Language: OCR works best for languages it's trained on
- Layout complexity: Simple layouts extract better than complex multi-column designs
Extracting Tables
Tables are challenging to extract because PDF stores table data as positioned text, not structured data. The relationship between cells isn't explicitly preserved.
Table Extraction Approaches
- Convert to DOCX first: Word does better at reconstructing tables
- Specialized table extractors: Some tools specifically target PDF tables
- Manual cleanup: Often necessary for complex tables
- PDF to Excel/CSV tools: For data-heavy documents
Tips for Better Table Extraction
- Convert to DOCX rather than plain text
- Check the table structure in the result
- Be prepared for manual adjustment
- For critical data, verify against the original
Common Extraction Issues
Weird Line Breaks
PDFs store text line-by-line as it appears on the page. A paragraph may have breaks mid-sentence wherever the original line wrapped. Fix with find-and-replace: search for single line breaks within paragraphs.
Missing Text
Some PDFs use images for headings, logos, or styled text. These won't extract as text. If visible text isn't in your output, it's probably an image in the original.
Garbled Characters
Custom fonts or encoding issues can produce incorrect characters. The PDF might use non-standard character mappings. Try a different extraction method or tool—different tools handle encoding differently.
Wrong Reading Order
Multi-column layouts sometimes extract with columns interleaved incorrectly. The tool reads left-to-right when it should follow column boundaries. Manual reordering may be necessary.
Headers and Footers Mixed In
Page numbers, headers, and footers extract as content on every page. You'll need to clean these out if they interrupt your main text.
Common Use Cases
Data Analysis
Extract text for natural language processing, sentiment analysis, or content analysis. Plain text is the input format most analysis tools expect.
Content Editing
Turn static PDFs back into editable content. Extract, edit in your preferred word processor, then recreate the PDF or publish in a new format.
Translation
Translation tools work better with extracted text than with PDFs directly. Extract, translate, then reformat as needed.
Search and Indexing
Make PDF contents searchable by extracting text for your search system. Document management systems often need this for full-text search.
Accessibility
Extract text to provide accessible alternatives to PDFs. Screen readers work better with plain text than with poorly-tagged PDFs.
Quotation and Citation
Extract specific passages for quoting in your own work. Cleaner than copy-pasting from a PDF viewer, which often introduces formatting issues.
Preserving Structure
Markdown Output
For documents with clear structure (headings, lists, emphasis), Markdown output preserves more than plain text:
- Headings become # Heading markers
- Bold and italic are preserved
- Lists maintain their structure
- Links remain clickable
DOCX Output
For maximum structure preservation, convert to DOCX:
- Tables attempt to reconstruct
- Formatting is preserved where possible
- You can edit in Word or compatible software
- Further export to other formats from Word
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I extract text from a password-protected PDF?
Depends on the protection type. Some "protected" PDFs allow reading but prevent editing—these often extract fine. Fully encrypted PDFs require the password first. Some tools can extract from read-only PDFs; none can bypass full encryption.
Will formatting be preserved?
Plain text has no formatting. For formatted output, convert to DOCX or HTML instead, which preserve more structure.
Can I extract text from a specific page only?
Most converters extract the entire document. Extract everything, then take the portion you need. For single-page extraction, some PDF editors can export individual pages first.
Why is some text appearing as symbols?
Custom fonts or encoding issues. The PDF uses non-standard character mappings. Try a different extraction tool, or try converting to DOCX first.
Can I extract text from a PDF on my phone?
Yes. Web-based converters work on mobile browsers. Upload your PDF, convert to text, download the result.
Is there a maximum file size?
Most converters have size limits—typically 50-100MB. Very large PDFs may need desktop software.
Why Use an Online Converter?
- No installation: Works in any browser immediately
- Cross-platform: Windows, macOS, Linux, mobile
- Multiple formats: Extract to text, Markdown, DOCX, or HTML
- Batch capable: Process multiple PDFs at once
- Consistent results: Same extraction quality everywhere
Ready to Extract Your PDF Text?
Whether you need plain text, Markdown, or an editable document, start with TinyUtils Document Converter. Upload your PDF, choose your output format, and download your extracted text.
For related conversions, see PDF to Markdown, PDF to DOCX, and PDF to HTML guides.