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PDF to TXT Converter

Extracting plain text from PDF documents strips away all formatting to give you raw, unformatted text content. This is invaluable for text analysis, data mining, search indexing, and processing document content programmatically. SublimePDF extracts text in proper reading order, handling multi-column layouts and complex page structures. The output is a clean .txt file that works in any text editor, command-line tool, or programming workflow.

Convert PDF to TXT instantly in your browser — no file uploads, no registration, and completely free.

Drop your PDF files here

or click to browse — up to 50MB

How to Convert PDF to TXT Online

1

Upload your PDF document

Drag and drop your .pdf file. Text-based PDFs produce the best results. Scanned PDFs require an embedded OCR text layer for text extraction.

2

Configure extraction settings

Choose reading order mode (automatic column detection or left-to-right), set whether to preserve line breaks as they appear in the PDF or reflow text into paragraphs, and select page delimiter style.

3

Download your text file

Your extracted text is saved as a clean .txt file in UTF-8 encoding. Page boundaries are marked with your chosen delimiter for easy navigation.

PDF to TXT Converter Features

Extracts text in proper reading order with column detection
UTF-8 encoding supports all languages and special characters
Configurable line break handling — preserve or reflow paragraphs
Page delimiters for easy navigation in multi-page documents
Handles headers, footers, and page numbers intelligently
Strips formatting to produce clean, processing-ready text
100% free — no registration required
Files processed in your browser (never uploaded)

When to Convert PDF to TXT

  • Extract text content from PDF documents for natural language processing and analysis
  • Create searchable plain text archives of PDF document libraries
  • Copy PDF content into code editors or terminal-based workflows
  • Feed PDF document text into translation tools or text-to-speech software
  • Extract raw text data from PDF reports for grep, awk, or other command-line processing

About PDF and TXT

What is PDF?

Portable Document Format (.pdf)The universal standard for sharing documents with consistent formatting across all devices and platforms. Learn more about PDF

What is TXT?

Plain Text File (.txt)A simple, unformatted text file compatible with virtually every device and application. Learn more about TXT

Privacy & Security

Your files never leave your device. All conversion happens locally in your browser using WebAssembly technology.

PDF to TXT Conversion FAQ

Will the text be in the correct reading order?
Yes. SublimePDF analyzes the page layout to determine proper reading order, including multi-column text, sidebars, and footnotes. Text is extracted in logical sequence.
Are images and graphics included in the text output?
No. Plain text extraction outputs only the textual content. Images, graphics, and decorative elements are excluded. Alt text for images (if present in the PDF) may be included.
Can I extract text from a scanned PDF?
If the scanned PDF has an embedded OCR text layer, that text is extracted. For image-only scanned PDFs without OCR, no text can be extracted — you would need to run OCR first.
What encoding is used?
The output file uses UTF-8 encoding, which supports all languages, scripts, and special characters including accented letters, CJK characters, and mathematical symbols.
How are headers and footers handled?
The converter can detect repeating headers and footers and either include them with each page or strip them out to produce cleaner continuous text. You can configure this behavior.