# PDF to Text Converter (with OCR)

Get the raw text out of a PDF — page by page, as a plain .txt file — even when the PDF is a scan. You also see the word count and the estimated reading time.

## Key facts

- Extracts the full text page by page, in reading order, as a downloadable .txt file.
- Scanned pages are read with OCR automatically (first 40 pages on the free tool).
- Shows pages, word count and reading time.
- Rejoins words hyphenated across lines and removes control characters.
- From the same upload you can then summarize or ask questions — no AI is used for extraction itself.

## How to extract text from a PDF

1. **Upload the PDF** — The Extract text tab is preselected.
2. **Preview the text** — It appears below, page by page.
3. **Download the .txt** — Each page is separated by a “===== Page N =====” marker.
4. **Optional: summarize** — Switch to Summary or Ask questions on the same document.

## Why copy-paste from a PDF often fails

Copying text from a PDF viewer often produces broken lines, missing spaces, merged columns or nothing at all. That's because a PDF stores positioned characters, not paragraphs. Extraction tools rebuild the reading order from those positions; scanned PDFs have no characters at all and need OCR. Our guide on why PDF text extraction fails explains the common cases.

## What you get

- **Reading-order text** — columns are read in order rather than line by line across the page.
- **Page markers** — handy to cite or to split the text.
- **Clean characters** — invisible control characters removed, hyphenated line breaks rejoined.

> **Need the text of a PDF?** — Upload it and download the .txt in seconds.

## Limits

Tables are extracted as text lines, not as spreadsheets. Text inside images is only read for scanned pages (OCR), not for pictures embedded in otherwise digital PDFs. Layout (fonts, bold, positions) is not kept — this is plain text.

## FAQ

### Is PDF to text free?

Yes, free and without an account.

### Does it work with scanned PDFs?

Yes. Pages without a text layer are read with OCR (first 40 pages of a scanned PDF on the free tool).

### Can I convert PDF to Word?

This tool gives plain text. Paste it into Word or Google Docs; formatting such as tables and images is not kept.

### How long is the text kept?

The text can be downloaded for 60 minutes after upload, then it is deleted. The PDF itself is deleted immediately.

### Can I extract text from a password-protected PDF?

Not directly. Open it with the password and use Print → Save as PDF to create an unprotected copy.

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Source: https://pdf-summarize.com/tools/pdf-to-text — PDF Summarizer (free PDF summarizer, Q&A with page citations, OCR, REST API). Site overview: https://pdf-summarize.com/llms.txt