Convert PDF to Text on Windows, Mac, and Online — Complete GuideConverting PDF to text is a common task whether you’re extracting notes from a report, preparing content for editing, or feeding documents into text analysis tools. This guide covers reliable methods for Windows and macOS, plus the best online approaches, including OCR for scanned PDFs, preserving layout, and tips for batch processing.
Why convert PDF to text?
PDF is a versatile format for distributing fixed-layout documents, but it’s not ideal when you need editable or machine-readable text. Converting PDFs to plain text (.txt) or other editable formats (Word, Markdown) lets you:
- Edit content easily
- Index and search text
- Feed text into NLP or data-processing pipelines
- Reuse content without retyping
Overview: Two main PDF types
Before choosing a method, identify which type of PDF you have:
- Digital (text-based) PDF: text is embedded and selectable. Conversion is straightforward and accurate.
- Scanned (image) PDF: pages are images from scans or photos. Requires OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to extract text; results depend on image quality and language.
Convert on Windows
1) Use Microsoft Word (Windows ⁄11)
- Open Word → File → Open → select the PDF.
- Word converts the PDF to an editable document; save as .docx or copy text to a .txt file.
- Best for text-based PDFs; layout may shift.
Pros: built-in, no extra software.
Cons: imperfect layout preservation; not suitable for complex PDFs or scanned images.
2) Adobe Acrobat Reader / Acrobat Pro
- Acrobat Reader: select text and copy (works for text-based PDFs).
- Acrobat Pro: File → Export To → Text or Microsoft Word. Use “Recognize Text (OCR)” for scanned PDFs.
- Acrobat Pro gives high-quality OCR and layout options.
Pros: accurate OCR and export options.
Cons: Acrobat Pro is paid.
3) Free tools: PDF-XChange Editor / LibreOffice
- PDF-XChange Editor (free version) can run OCR and export text.
- LibreOffice Draw/OpenOffice can open PDFs and let you copy/export text; better for simple text-based PDFs.
Pros: free.
Cons: OCR quality varies.
4) Command-line: pdftotext (Poppler)
- Install Poppler for Windows (includes pdftotext).
- Usage:
pdftotext input.pdf output.txt - Fast, scriptable, ideal for batch jobs. Works only for text-based PDFs.
Pros: powerful, automatable.
Cons: no OCR; requires separate OCR step for scanned PDFs.
Convert on macOS
1) Preview (built-in)
- Open PDF in Preview, select and copy text for text-based PDFs.
- No built-in OCR in Preview.
Pros: quick for selectable text.
Cons: no OCR, manual.
2) Adobe Acrobat Pro for Mac
- Same features as Windows: export, OCR, and save as text or Word.
3) Automator + AppleScript workflows
- Use Automator to build a workflow to extract text from PDFs using built-in actions or call command-line tools.
- Example: use “Extract PDF Text” action to create a text file from text-based PDFs.
Pros: automatable, integrates with macOS.
Cons: OCR not built-in; limited for scanned PDFs.
4) Command-line: pdftotext (Homebrew)
- Install Poppler:
brew install poppler pdftotext input.pdf output.txt - Works well for batch processing text-based PDFs.
Convert online (web tools)
Online tools are convenient when you don’t want to install software. Use them for quick conversions, especially for occasional use.
Popular workflows:
- Upload PDF → choose “Convert to Text” or “OCR” → download .txt/.docx.
Pros: easy, often free for small files; some offer good OCR.
Cons: privacy concerns for sensitive documents; upload size limits; quality varies.
Security tip: don’t upload sensitive or confidential documents unless the service explicitly guarantees deletion policies and encryption.
Best online tools & what they offer
- Dedicated PDF-to-text converters with OCR: many provide both plain-text and Word exports.
- Cloud office suites (Google Drive/Docs): upload PDF to Google Drive → Right-click → Open with → Google Docs. Google performs OCR on scanned PDFs and opens a Docs document with extracted text above the image. Good balance of accuracy and convenience.
- Specialized OCR services (ABBYY FineReader Online, OCR.space): higher OCR accuracy and layout options, often with paid tiers.
Handling scanned PDFs (OCR tips)
- Image quality: higher resolution (300 DPI+) and clear contrast improve OCR accuracy.
- Language & fonts: select the correct language in the OCR tool; some tools support multiple languages.
- Preprocessing: rotate pages, crop margins, despeckle or increase contrast before OCR for better results. Tools like ImageMagick or ScanTailor can help.
- Proofread: OCR is rarely 100% accurate—always proofread the output if accuracy matters.
- Preserve layout vs. extract plain text: choose whether you need formatted output (Word, PDF with searchable text layer) or simple plain text.
Batch processing and automation
-
Command-line tools (pdftotext) are perfect for batch jobs:
for f in *.pdf; do pdftotext "$f" "${f%.pdf}.txt"; done -
For scanned PDFs, combine OCR engines (Tesseract) with scripting:
# Convert PDF pages to images, then OCR with Tesseract pdftoppm input.pdf page -png for img in page-*.png; do tesseract "$img" "${img%.*}" -l eng; done -
Windows PowerShell, macOS Automator, or Python libraries (PyPDF2, pdfminer.six, pytesseract) allow complex pipelines that extract, clean, and save text programmatically.
Preserving formatting and structure
- Plain .txt strips formatting. If you need headings, tables, or images preserved, export to .docx or use a searchable PDF with a text layer.
- Tools that try to keep layout: Adobe Acrobat Pro, ABBYY FineReader, and some online converters. They can produce Word documents or rich-text output that retain columns, tables, and fonts better than plain text.
Common issues & fixes
- Missing characters or weird encoding: try exporting as UTF-8 or opening the text file in a Unicode-capable editor.
- Columns merge into single flow: use OCR or converters with column recognition, or manually split columns.
- Large files/timeouts on online services: use desktop tools or batch tools; split PDFs before uploading.
Quick recommendations
- For occasional, non-sensitive, scanned PDFs: Google Drive → Open with Google Docs (good OCR).
- For high-accuracy OCR and layout preservation: Adobe Acrobat Pro or ABBYY FineReader.
- For scripting and bulk conversion of text-based PDFs: pdftotext (Poppler) or pdfminer.six.
- For free OCR on many platforms: Tesseract (combined with image preprocessing).
Example tool commands
pdftotext (text-based PDFs):
pdftotext input.pdf output.txt Tesseract OCR (after converting pages to images):
pdftoppm input.pdf page -png tesseract page-1.png output -l eng Homebrew install (macOS):
brew install poppler tesseract Final notes
Choose the method based on PDF type (text vs scanned), privacy needs, desired output format (plain text vs formatted), and whether you need automation. OCR quality depends heavily on source image quality and language support.
Leave a Reply