How to Copy and Extract Text from a PDF
Key points
- Choose a PDF and tap "Extract text"
- Copy the text or save it as .txt
- Image-only PDFs have no text to extract
Steps
- Open "Extract Text from PDF" and choose the PDF.
- Choose whether to add page markers.
- Tap "Extract text".
- Use "Copy", or save as a text file (.txt).
What can be extracted
PDFs made from Word and similar contain "text data", so they can be extracted. PDFs made by scanning paper are images, so they can't.
After extracting
- Line breaks and order may differ from the original.
- Tables and columns tend to break, so tidy them by hand.
Note
When using extracted text in reports and the like, mind citation rules and copyright.
Use "Extract Text from PDF" (free)Tools that go well with this
- PDF to Images: Save each page of a PDF as a JPEG or PNG image.
- Extract or Delete PDF Pages: Keep only the pages you need, or remove the pages you don't.
- Compress PDF: Shrink a PDF to fit under a size you choose, for upload limits.