Why is the result empty?

Your PDF is probably a scan. Scans are images, so there is no text to extract.

Does it keep formatting?

It keeps line breaks and page breaks, but not fonts, tables or layout.

PDF to text — extract text from a PDF

Copy the text out of a PDF without fighting with selection. Your file never leaves your device. The tool runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded, stored, or seen by us.

Choose a PDFor drop it here — it stays on your device

Never uploaded
Free, no sign-up
No watermark
Works on phones

Free Android app

Search inside PDFs on your phone.

FramePDF finds text inside a PDF and jumps straight to it — offline, on Android. It can also find questions, tables and QR codes and save them as pictures.

Find text in any PDF
Jump to a section from the contents
Save tables and questions as pictures

Get FramePDF on Google PlayAndroid · Free · No account · Works offline

FramePDF export sheet with PDF, Word, images, long image and ZIP options

How to extract text from a PDF

1Drop a PDF into the box.
2Press Extract text.
3Copy the text or download it as .txt.

PDF to text: key facts

Price: Free — no sign-up, no watermark
Privacy: Runs in your browser; files are never uploaded
Output: Plain text (.txt), page by page
Scanned PDFs: Not supported — scans are images with no text layer
Works on: Any modern browser — Android, iPhone, Windows, Mac
Offline option: FramePDF Android app (free)

Digital vs scanned PDFs

A PDF made from Word, a website or a bank portal contains real text, which this tool can pull out instantly. A scanned PDF is a photo of paper — there's no text inside it to extract, and you'd need OCR.

Frequently asked questions

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