How to copy or extract text from a PDF
2 min read·25 July 2026
Copying text from a PDF is sometimes easy, and sometimes not at all. It depends on the type of PDF. With PDFrust's pdf2text tool you extract all text from a PDF to a text file you can paste anywhere.
Two types of PDFs
A 'searchable PDF' has a real text layer: you can move the cursor over the text, select it, and copy it. An 'image PDF' (e.g. a scan) contains only pixels: there is no selectable text. To copy text from a scan you first need OCR.
Extract text with pdf2text
Open the pdf2text tool on PDFrust. Upload your PDF. PDFrust extracts all text content (paragraphs, tables, headings) and offers it as a downloadable text file. You can then paste the text into Word, Notepad, or any other program.
PDF to text
Try for free, no account needed
Preserve formatting?
The pdf2text tool extracts plain text without formatting. Want to keep the formatting (headings, bold, italic)? Try: open the PDF in Google Chrome → Print → 'Save as PDF' via Google Docs: import the PDF into Google Docs (File → Open), which attempts to interpret the formatting.
Scan to text
Is your PDF a scan? First use the OCR tool to add a text layer. Then you can open the searchable PDF and select text, or use the pdf2text tool to extract everything.
Related tools