ScoutMyTool

PDF to Text

Get the text out of a PDF — to search it, quote it, or reuse it elsewhere. Download plain text, or Markdown with the headings marked. Runs in your browser.

By the ScoutMyTool team · Last reviewed 14 November 2026 · How we build our tools

How do I extract text from a PDF?

Choose your PDF, pick plain text or Markdown, and select Extract text. You get a .txt or .md file of all the text, with page markers if you want them. This works for PDFs that contain real text; for scans, run OCR PDF first.

or drag and drop it here

Runs in your browser — your file is not uploaded anywhere.

Markdown infers heading levels from font size. TSV detects column boundaries (server). Word frequency list tallies every word and sorts by count (content analysis). Structure splits the detected headings (outline) from the body into two files. Best-effort on native (text) PDFs.

Adds page labels so you can tell where text came from. Default = a "--- Page N ---" header line between pages. Inline = compact "[page N]" markers between paragraphs (no extra blank lines — keeps the output tight while still searchable). Off = clean continuous text. Applies to both .txt and .md output.

More options

Plain-text output only: keep just the pages whose detected language matches (best-effort, native-text PDFs). Use the Language report format to see what was detected per page.

Optional separator line inserted between paragraphs (blank-line boundaries) in the .txt output. Common values: "---" for visual dividers, "¶" for a pilcrow marker, "==" for double-rule. Default empty = paragraphs are separated by their existing blank lines only (legacy behaviour). The .md / .tsv / structured outputs preserve their existing formatting.

Plain-text output: prefixes each line with leading spaces estimated from its left position on the page — preserves indented blocks (code, outlines). Native-text PDFs only.

When off, text in the top and bottom 8% margin bands (running heads, page numbers) is excluded from the extraction. Native-text PDFs only.

How to use PDF to Text

  1. Choose or drop your PDF.
  2. Pick the output format.
  3. Select Extract text and download the file.

Formats

Plain text gives every word in reading order. Markdown also marks headings (#, ##, ###) based on font size, which is handy for notes and websites. Tab-separated output detects columns so tables can be pasted into a spreadsheet, and JSON returns headings, paragraphs and tables for use in code.

A scanned PDF contains pictures of text, not text — the result will be empty. Run OCR PDF first to add a text layer, then extract.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my text file empty?

The PDF is probably a scan. Run OCR PDF first, then extract the text.

Is my PDF uploaded?

Plain text and Markdown are extracted in your browser. Only the tab-separated table format uses our server.

Can I leave out headers and footers?

Yes. Under More options, choose to drop running headers and footers.

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